Why Are We Surprised?

I had a regularly scheduled visit with my cardiologist last month. After he listened to my ticker and examined the EKG charts, I asked him what would happen to our relationship if HR 3200 was passed. He said that nothing would change, but that something must be done as half the hospitals in the state are going bankrupt.

Well, either he lied to me or he does not comprehend the havoc changes that will occur if this bill becomes law.

This cardiologist had treated my FIL since his first episode of congestive heart failure in 1986 right up until his death in 2007. He has also been my doctor since 2001 when I had a minor heart attack.

He has not fully realized what is happening, but the NY Times has finally seen the grim picture that Obama and his godless, homicidal democrats have painted for the rest of us. It is really a work of deadly art, a grotesque Van Gogh, a morbid Monet. And it should come as no surprise - liberals have cheered the mass murder of the unborn since 1972.

Now that they have set their sights on the elderly we can see what atheism has in store for everyone. Your value as a human will be gauged by your social utility - what you can do for society, how useful you will be. As an old, worn out senior you will be given the honor of serving your country one last time by being dragged outside the city walls and letting the wolves have at you. It's a lot cheaper than keeping your wobbly, skinny ass alive with expensive medication or surgery.

But back to the Times.

WASHINGTON — White House officials and Democrats in Congress say the fears of older Americans about possible rationing of health care are based on myths and
falsehoods. But Medicare beneficiaries and insurance counselors say the concerns are not entirely irrational.

Bills now in Congress would squeeze savings out of Medicare, a lifeline for the elderly, on the assumption that doctors and hospitals can be more efficient.

This is bull, absolute garbage. Government imposed controls never made anything more efficient. Government participation in any program drives up the cost and reduces options. Look at any government program, look at what they did to the Indians! The democrats use estimated savings to lie to us, to give the impression that cost savings can be realized just by simply managing the process better.

The problem is this, the process is already managed by the government and that's what is wrong with it.

President Obama has sold health care legislation to Congress and the country as a way to slow the growth of federal health spending, no less than as a way to regulate the insurance market and cover the uninsured.

The problem with the health care industry is that people who have no way of paying for health care are flooding our hospitals with deadbeats such as illegal aliens and drunks and others who use ambulance rides as a diversion. And they can't refuse them!

Let me explain. In the early 1990's my Department initiated a study on ways to reduce calls for police services. I was in Planning and Research at the time and did the statistical work up. The reason for the study was that our staffing was being cut and we just didn't have enough cops to go around. There was also another problem in "boutique policing" where political pressure was used to spin off specialized units from the general patrol population leaving fewer and fewer cops to respond to calls but that's another story. Let it suffice to say that in 1975 there were 98 cops alone on Patrol Platoon III and another 25 or 28 cops in CCT Platoon III (CCT served in six high crime areas- patrol covered the rest of the City) for a total of say, ohhhhh 125 cops on just Platoon III which was the 3 pm to 11 pm shift. There were two other Platoons (shifts) but Platoon III was the biggest. I estimate that there was probably 250 cops in all of Patrol and CCT.

By 1985 we were down to 150 cops on all Patrol shifts, Platoons I, II, III and IV. CCT was eliminated in 1979 and Platoon IV was created to handle peak call times from 2000 to 0400. I was working midnights then (Platoon I) and counted up the roster sheets myself. I couldn't believe it. There were times in the summer when myself and one other cop were the only ones assigned to the City's South Side (most violent areas) after 4 pm when Platoon IV went off duty.

So eliminating calls was important. One of the call categories we eliminated was ambulance calls. Prior to this our rules and regs stated that we would respond to all calls for ambulances - over 12,000 ambulance calls a year. Bogus calls for ambulance service by idiots, drunks and nutcases got to the point where the dispatcher was sending us to the location first to see if an ambulance should be dispatched. We're not doctors! But call after call would go out to the same location time after time for the same idiot:
Call #1 at 0100 hr - he has a headache;
Call #2 at 0245 hr - his tummy is upset; and finally
Call #3 at 0430 hr - he has just shat himself and doesn't know why he wants an ambulance but enjoys swearing at you in front of his drunken buddies.

Idiots would call an ambulance because they were lonely, scared or bored. By calling an ambulance a clean, reasonably intelligent person (also usually blessed with the patience of Job - I'd mace the son of a bitch after the second call) would respond with lights blazing and sirens blaring and make a fuss over them and take them out in a stretcher (big sympathy factor there from the neighbors who likewise were bored and stupid - it was like some kind of celebrity idiot reality show).

Then a fast ride to the hospital where they would be in a comfortable air conditioned room where they could annoy the staff for hours on end. Ambulance calls always peaked during the hot summer months. Doubt me? Just find an ambulance EMT or an emergency care RN or doctor and ask them. Ask them about the idiots who show up in the ER three of four times a week or the people who use ER's as clinics at 2 am because their four year old welfare snapper has the sniffles for God's sake and is accompanied by her useless mother and brother and several cousins who profanely demand that 4 year old spoiled Tamika be seen by a half dozen RN's and DR's while the poor bastard in the next room on one side is having a heart attack and a whore on the other side is getting stitched up because her pimp split her ass sideways with a straight edge razor. It's the man keepin' us down!

And not one of them pays a frigging DIME for this service! WE DO!

This is the kind of shit that drives up health care costs and makes it more difficult to serve people who really need health care. And I'm not even going to touch on defensive medical practices because of the stinking parasites that call themselves lawyers. Not all lawyers of course - just enough of them to add at least another $100 billion in costs to the health care system.

Okay, . Back to the Slimes.

Mr. Obama has also said Medicare and private insurers could improve care and save money by following advice from a new federal panel of medical experts on “what treatments work best.”

The zeal for cutting health costs, combined with proposals to compare the effectiveness of various treatments and to counsel seniors on end-of-life care, may explain why some people think the legislation is about rationing, which could affect access to the most expensive services in the final months of life.

Damn right - it's the only way. This is just another step to what has been going on for decades, cost transference. Nothing new here, just keep moving along folks.