The Government Boot on Your Doctor's Neck
By Richard E. Ralston
June 29, 2010
We live in an age when the secretary of the Interior and the White
House press secretary proudly and publicly proclaim that they will
keep their "boot on the neck" of an oil company. This new
manifestation of "hope" and "change" is ominous at a time when the
government is rapidly escalating its involvement and control of all
aspects of American society. That is especially true in the health
care arena, but anyone with a neck should be concerned.
If you have been wondering how the health care legislation enacted
this year will work out in practice, there has been a strong early
indicator from Idaho. Eric Holder's Justice Department has used the
Antitrust Division's civil action and criminal prosecution powers to
force orthopedists to accept government reimbursement rates for their
services. Accepting anything other than the government rate is
considered a criminal conspiracy against market pricing.
How is that? The Department of Justice declares that "government
prices are market prices." The Idaho Orthopedic Society is guilty of
criminal conspiracy to fix prices if its members charge anything
other than the price fixed by the government.
By the way, these physicians have also been told that they must
accept rates paid by Blue Cross and set by the Idaho Industrial
Commission for workers' compensation claims.
In the Orwellian world of the Justice Department, if physicians
decide on a price, they are engaged in a criminal conspiracy, and if
the government forces a price on everyone, that is a "market price."
When the clear meaning of words is replaced with government fiat in
this way, all limits on arbitrary government power and its use of
force are destroyed.
For two generations the U.S. government has reimbursed physicians and
hospitals for less than the cost of treatment for Medicare and
Medicaid patients. In addition, physicians who treat Medicare
patients are forbidden from charging them for any service not covered
by Medicare. These inequities result in the shifting of costs to
other patients and private insurance companies.
While providers who decline to treat Medicare and Medicaid patients
have not been charged with criminal penalties (so far), the threat to
further reduce reimbursements serves as a powerful weapon for
politicians to rake in funds. They effectively turn organizations
like the American Medical Association into public employee unions
focused on getting their share from the government.
The ground was laid some time ago for this mistreatment of physicians.
Last year, during the debate on health care legislation, a New York
Times editorial viciously attacked physicians because they "have been
complicit in driving up health-care costs." The editorial said that
physicians are guilty of this because they "largely decide what
medicine or surgical treatments are needed," which makes many of them
"unabashed profiteers."
What President Obama calls health care "reform" will, over the next
few years, make it quite clear who will decide which medicine or
surgical treatments you need. It will not be your physician.
As the government becomes the exclusive authority over the cost of
health care, it will inevitably become the exclusive authority over
the treatments permitted in health care. Physicians or anyone else
who stand in the way will become "enemies of the people."
There are times when political rhetoric must not be ignored. There
are some things that must not be allowed to just go by. Rhetoric can
become government action. When a member of the Cabinet or of the
White House staff threatens to keep their "boot" on anyone's neck,
when physicians are made criminals because they do not accept a
government payment that does not cover their costs, "boot" is not a
metaphor but the Justice Department on our necks.
Richard E. Ralston is Executive Director of Americans for Free Choice in Medicine.
Copyright © 2010 Americans for Free Choice in Medicine. All rights reserved.
For reprint permission, contact AFCM.
|
Print Page
E-mail Page