ObamaCare’s promises to cut
costs really
mean cutting care, especially expensive cancer
care, which often occurs at what will soon be
the “end of life.” America’s leading position in
cancer care will fall off a cliff, taking your
life with it.
The “changes” to be forced on us starting in
2013 do not provide “hope.” For cancer patients, ObamaCare’s “change” is a drastic threat to your
survival.
ObamaCare deals a body blow to our state of
the art cancer treatment. Multiple “hits” in the
healthcare bill include: (1) Medicare fee cuts
to cancer specialists, resulting in payments
that may be below the cost of staying in
business; (2) cutbacks in coverage for the
screening tests that pick up early cancers, such
as prostate specific antigen (PSA), mammograms,
Pap smears, and colonoscopies; (3) onerous and
costly government mandates and regulations,
interfering in physician-patient decisions for
allowed treatments; (4) de-labeling (i.e.,
disapproving) some cancer drugs to save money,
already started with Avastin for aggressive late
stage breast cancer, and (5) denials of
life-saving treatments, copying the UK’s
National Health Service rationing board (Dr.
Donald Berwick’s stated goal). The UK rationing
board (N.I.C.E.) now denies many new cancer
drugs for leukemia, multiple myeloma, stomach,
lung, breast and prostate cancers.
Other ObamaCare hits to cancer care: new
taxes on medical devices and drugs for state of
the art treatment; reduced approvals for and
delays in access to diagnostic MRIs and CT
scans; and a projected doctor shortage of 91,000
in ten years according to the American
Association of Medical Colleges, and as high as
200,000 estimated by Merritt, Hawkins and
Associates.
Adding a further knock out punch: the worst
newly created ObamaCare feature–the Independent
Payment Advisory Board. IPAB sets up government
appointed experts mandated to control your
medical care. This new IPAB subverts our normal
appeal and review process because this
government panel is completely independent and
not subject to review by Congress, judges, or
medical experts. Under ObamaCare rules,
decisions of the IPAB cannot be overturned or
appealed.
IPAB is structured to keep their decisions
isolated from our ability as patients and
physicians to influence them or to have a voice
in our medical treatment.
Even more diabolical, the ObamaCare bill
restricts the right of future Congresses to
amend or appeal this legislation. There is only
a short two-week window of time in late January
2017 during which this board could be
discontinued, and only with a supermajority vote
in Congress. It is unprecedented to have such an
attempt to restrict future Congressional
decisions.
It is an ugly picture. Government panels
focused on cutting costs instead of saving lives
when the USPHS Task Force recommended cutting
back mammograms for women in the fall of 2009.
Their reduced screening recommendation was not
based on new medical information. It was based
on cost analysis. They admitted we saved more
lives by starting to screen women with
mammograms at age 40, but it cost more to save
those lives. Your life became a number for the
bean counters.
The outcry from women’s groups, cancer
specialists, radiologists and other physicians
resulted in political pressure that stopped that
change. But will we be able to stop it again as
costs mount and the new head of Medicare and
Medicaid, Dr. Donald Berwick, pushes forward
with his stated goal of “rationing with our eyes
open”?
Be very clear: ObamaCare cutbacks will affect
the quality and timeliness of your cancer care.
Ironically and in a cruel twist, it is YOUR
taxpayer money being “saved” by rationing YOUR
care.
The political elite, however, including
members of Congress, who voted for this
monstrosity, will continue to have rapid access
to the best diagnostic and treatment options, as
has always happened with government-run
medicine. You suffer the effects of rationing
and cutbacks. The political elite do not.
Which will you choose? ObamaCare promises of
“free” healthcare like Canada and Britain…with a
shorter life? Or, you and your doctor keeping
the right to decide on life-saving cancer
treatment, free of government control…and with
it a chance to live longer?
In the United States, we now have a 92%
survival rate for prostate cancer vs. the UK’s
51%; a 35% longer survival rate for colon cancer
compared with the British; a 25% longer survival
for breast cancer than European women; and 50%
of the new cancer drugs launched in the last
decade. Men in the United States have a 66%
survival for sixteen different types of cancer.
In Europe, the survival is 47% for the same
sixteen cancers. Americans enjoy a 90% survival
for five cancers: prostate, breast, thyroid,
testicular and melanoma. In Europe, only one
cancer in one country has a 90% survival rate
(testicular) (France) has a 90% survival rate.
World leaders frequently come here for their
cancer treatment.
Do you want “change” to mean a higher cancer
death rate and lower survival?
On November 2nd,
you decide.
© Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D. October 18, 2010
Dr. Vliet speaks as an independent physician,
not as an official spokesperson for any
organization. Dr. Vliet has no financial ties to
any health care system, pharmaceutical company,
or health insurance plan. Her allegiance and
advocacy is to and for patients. Her medical
website is www.herplace.com.
Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D. is a women’s health
specialist and the Founder of HER Place: Health
Enhancement Renewal for Women, Inc. with medical
practices in Tucson AZ and Dallas TX. Dr. Vliet
is President of International Health Strategies,
Ltd., a global healthcare and education service
company whose mission is twofold: liberty and
privacy in the choice of treatment options and
preservation of the Hippocratic tradition of
focus on the individual patient.
Dr. Vliet is the 2007 recipient of the Voice
of Women award from the Arizona Foundation for
Women in recognition of her pioneering advocacy
for the overlooked hormone connections in
women’s health. Dr. Vliet has appeared on FOX
NEWS, Cavuto, Stuart Varney Show, Fox and
Friends and syndicated radio shows across the
country addressing these critical issues. She
has been an invited speaker for numerous
healthcare Town Hall presentations, and guest
speaker at international conferences on how
healthcare regulation changes affect both
physical and financial health.
Dr. Vliet's books include: It’s My
Ovaries, Stupid!; Screaming To Be Heard:
Hormonal Connections Women Suspect-- And
Doctors STILL Ignore; Women, Weight and
Hormones; The Savvy Woman's Guide to PCOS,
The Savvy Woman’s Guide to Testosterone.
Dr. Vliet received her M.D. degree and
internship in Internal Medicine at Eastern
Virginia Medical School, then completed
specialty training at Johns Hopkins School
of Medicine. She received B.S. and M.Ed.
degrees from The College of William and Mary
in Virginia. Dr. Vliet is a Director of the
Association of American Physicians and
Surgeons, and member of The International
Menopause Society, The International Society
of Gynecological Endocrinology, American
Society of Reproductive Medicine, The
Heritage Foundation, The Jamestown Society,
Daughters of the American Revolution, Order
of First Families of Virginia, and the Order
of Descendants of Ancient Planters.
Dr. Vliet’s medical and educational
website is www.HerPlace.com For more on
healthcare reform, go to
www.TakeBackMedicine.com and
www.aapsonline.org
To book Dr.
Vliet for interviews, healthcare talks, or
for permission to publish articles, call
520-797-9131 (MST).
