The time has come to address the problem of the infamous ObamaCare “death panels”, which will soon be carrying out its charge to “bend the cost curve downward” on medical care, affecting the life – and death – of millions of Americans.
Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D., a preventive medicine specialist who appears regularly on Fox and syndicated radio shows, is warning that that the creation of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), popularly known as the “death panel,” poses a serious risk to the constitutional right of all Americans to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
“IPAB is a panel of unelected, government-appointed bureaucrats set up under the guise of ‘efficiency’ and ‘clinical effectiveness’ to ‘recommend’ cuts to Medicare services in order to ‘bend the cost curve downward’,” she writes in the Christian Post. “That is government-speak for ‘spend less money on patient care’.”
IPAB is also charged with slowing the growth of payments to doctors and hospitals, reducing the rate of medication reimbursement under Medicare, and “reducing waste” in Medicare spending.
“‘Waste’, however, is defined solely by bureaucrats, and may include medicine you actually need,” she writes.
For instance, Dr. Vliet cites the case of an 80 year-old man who was recently told by his pharmacist that Medicare is no longer going to pay for his heart medicine because he’s too old. His only choices are to either pay out of pocket or die.
“Recently, the government quietly directed Medicare to cut reimbursement for four million diabetic seniors by 66 percent and also reduced the number of companies that are allowed to supply blood sugar monitoring supplies from more than a thousand to 15. Older patients are already being hurt by Obamacare reductions in Medicare services,” Dr. Vliet states.
What most Americans don’t know is that IPAB is set up to function exactly like the UK’s National Health Service rationing board known as NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence). NICE prevents doctors from prescribing state-of-the-art drugs for breast, stomach, lung, and prostate cancer or diseases like multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and many others, she explains.
Even the American Medical Association, which endorsed ObamaCare, is calling for the repeal of IPAB, due to worries about payment cuts, limited access to care, and a lack of “meaningful dialogue” with Congress.
“As a physician who took an Oath to serve the individual patient to the best of my ability and judgment, I believe it is a major assault on our very right to life to have unelected, politically appointed bureaucrats making medical decisions-especially without any right of appeal or Congressional oversight or judicial review,” Dr. Vliet writes. “In passing the healthcare law, the Democrats ruled out any review of IPAB diktats now or in the future-an astonishing abuse of power.”
She adds: “Life is a gift from our Creator, not the government. IPAB must be repealed before we become like Britain: a place where old people are condemned to die sooner than God intended.”
Click here to contact your representative today and ask them to repeal IPAB before it’s too late!
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