You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.
- Abraham Lincoln

In the Stimulus Package, hidden about 600 pages deep, there was a section that created the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (take notice of the $1.1 billion it took to create it). This Council is made up of a Rationing Board of 15 people, all appointed by Obama within three days of the stimulus bill passing.

Long story short, this Board has the authority to determine whether or not a patient can and will be treated. They determine this by taking the cost of the treatment and dividing it by the number of years the patient will benefit from the treatment.

On top of this, there was another section in the stimulus bill that created the National Coordinator for Health Information and Technology. This National Coordinator (Farzad Mostashari) has the authority to determine the correct treatment at the time and place of care based on the equation above.

In a nutshell, if your life long doctor determines that “treatment A” is the best treatment and the most beneficial to your health and the National Coordinator determines that “treatment B” is most economically correct, you are inevitably stuck with the Coordinators decision, “treatment B.”

Furthermore, if the doctor goes against the National Coordinators decision then he/she will be subject to fine of $100,000 for the first offense and face possible jail time for the second offence. A survey posted in the Journal American Medical Association estimates that approximately 46% of all physicians will leave the field and stop practicing medicine.

This is scary. How do we not have a choice of treatment? I wonder how pro choice liberals would feel about this. It would be very disturbing if they were comfortable with this. After all, they are pro choice when it comes to the issue of abortion. When it comes to our own personal health they would rather have the government make the decision? Seems a little hypocritical to me…

Doesn’t our doctor. know what’s best for us? This is a perfect example of another instance where our freedom of choice is being taken away from us. Where do we draw the line?