Useless eaters beware !!!!!



Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
He has already been appointed to two key positions: health-policy adviser at
the Office of Management and Budget and a member of Federal Council on
Comparative Effectiveness Research.

Emanuel believes that "communitarianism" should guide decisions on who gets
care. He says medical care should be reserved for the non-disabled, not
given to those "who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming
participating citizens . . . An obvious example is not guaranteeing health
services to patients with dementia" (Hastings Center Report, Nov.-Dec. '96).

Emanuel wants doctors to look beyond the needs of their patients and
consider social justice, such as whether the money could be better spent on
somebody else.

Translation: Don't give much care to a grandmother with Parkinson's or a
child with cerebral palsy.

Emanuel sees even basic amenities as luxuries and says Americans expect too
much: "Hospital rooms in the United States offer more privacy . . .
physicians' offices are typically more conveniently located and have parking
nearby and more attractive waiting rooms" (JAMA, June 18, 2008).

Dr. David Blumenthal, another key Obama adviser, agrees. He recommends
slowing medical innovation to control health spending.

Blumenthal has long advocated government health-spending controls, though he
concedes they're "associated with longer waits" and "reduced availability of
new and expensive treatments and devices" (New England Journal of Medicine,
March 8, 2001). But he calls it "debatable" whether the timely care
Americans get is worth the cost. (Ask a cancer patient, and you'll get a
different answer. Delay lowers your chances of survival.)

Obama appointed Blumenthal as national coordinator of health-information
technology, a job that involves making sure doctors obey electronically
deivered guidelines about what care the government deems appropriate and
cost effective.

In the April 9 New England Journal of Medicine, Blumenthal predicted that
many doctors would resist "embedded clinical decision support" -- a
euphemism for computers telling doctors what to do.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07242009...941.htm?page=0

Best Regards

Tom.