The President's opponents have made many, many bizarre claims about the recently approved "economic stimulus" law.

One of the claims is that government will tell physicians what procedures can and can't be performed. That is a lie. That claim demonstrates the twisted thinking that goes into the opposition to the new way of governing.

Rep. Tom Price (R-Georgia) says the measure creates "a national health care rationing board."

WRONG!

What it creates is a council to coordinate research into which treatments work best, and are most effective for the money. The new law states quite specifically that the council

1. has no power to "mandate coverage"
2. will make recommendations - BUT! - those recommendations are not to be construed as "clinical guidelines for ... treatment."
   

Betsy McCaughey, a former lieutenant governor (R-New York), claims that the bill creates a "new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology." McCaughey also says the office "will monitor treatments" and " 'guide' your doctor's decisions."

WRONGER YET!

• The office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology is part of a Republican plan: it was created in 2004 by President Bush - when the Republicans controlled the executive and legislative branches of government. Bush's initiative was designed to create a health IT system to transmit information that will "guide medical decisions." Typical of good ideas, the Bush administration underfunded that office - thereby crippling its ability to do anything useful.
  
  
• The federal government has, for decades, funded comparative effectiveness research. The intent is to improve the quality of care. It some cases it might show that more costly treatments aren't as effective as less expensive alternatives. It is just as likely to support more expensive treatments when those treatments are more effective.
  

Now for the real kicker: we already have in place the onerous system described in the opposition's hysterical lies. However, that onerous system isn't operated by the evil big brother (liberal) government. No... it's operated by those politicians' favorite panacea: the so-called "free" market.

Forget the dishonesty. Here's how it really works. Health insurance companies right now, today

• tell physicians which procedures can and can't be performed
  
  
• monitor treatments and 'guide' your doctor's decisions
  
  
• are a health care rationing board - providing direction, monitoring, and guiding...
  
  
• have bureaucrats who get between the patient and the doctor
  
  
• ration health care by rationing the payments to medical care providers
  
  
• ration health care based on the patient's ability to pay premiums (and deductibles and co-payments)
  

The problem with the so-called "free market" solutions is that decisions tend to be based on the insurance company's short-term bottom line. How much can we get and hold on to this year, this quarter? How much will the executives' bonuses be?

In practice, that becomes a negative view of living up to the money-handler's end of the the agreement. When an insurance company accepts payments for premiums, it agrees to pay claims according to the terms of the policy. However, the industry has a term for paying claims for care provided under the terms of the insurance policy:

Payments on legitimate claims for health care services and goods are called "Medical Losses."

That is like the unimaginable situation in which a retailer says that when you walk out the door with the groceries for which you paid - it's an "Inventory Loss" - something to be avoided.

In reality, the grocer is thrilled to see you paying and then heading for the parking lot. The transaction is not a loss for the grocer - it's an exchange of goods and services for cash... kind of like the real "free market." It boggles the mind to imagine a store trying to get you to pay for the groceries but preventing you from taking the food home.

Insurance companies used to be proud that they paid claims as agreed. [Trust me on this - I used to work in the industry] Now medical insurance companies

• routinely risk having customers (medical patients) die by stalling on approval of medical procedures
  
  
• withhold payments as long as possible - thus adding to the costs of medical care providers; those costs gets passed on to the consumer
  
  
• look for loopholes (even ones that don't exist) to hang on to money that should be - under terms of the policy - paid promptly
  

If you think I'm making that up, try a Google search - or ASK YOUR DOCTOR!

If health insurance companies were in dire financial straits, those actions would be understandable (although still wrong). But.... the health insurance companies - and their partners in crime, the pharmaceutical industry - are second only to energy companies in profitability. Insurers have no excuse for dodging their responsibilities.

The 'just say no' politicians are fighting hard to support an industry's unethical practices while blaming those unethical practices on the entities which are there to try to improve all components of health services: providers, technology, information, payers, and most of all, patients.

Their concern is not the well-being of the people who actually pay the bills or of the people and businesses that provide the goods and services. All they want to do is perpetuate a status quo that is rigged.

Health care should be one of the top priorities for our nation.What we need is

• free, open, honest discussions of the real issues
• discussions based on facts rather than on lies
• a medical care system that works for patients
• a medical care system that rewards honoring agreements - kind of like the way a real free market is supposed to work