Sebelius says US healthcare no better than developing countries

In a new twist, over the debate as to whether the Affordable Healthcare Act goes against the US Constitution, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said, during a speech at a healthcare forum, described the services provided by the American health care system as on par with those in “a developing country.”

In her remarks, Sebelius was especially critical of the costs and delivery speed of treatment in the United States. The delivery system changes are what will affect underlying costs, and that impacts everybody,” Sebelius said Thursday. “We pay 2 1/2 times what anybody else pays in the world, and our care outcomes look like we’re in a developing country.

New American

Secretary Sebelius reckons that the best prescription is the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known as ObamaCare. And the Secretary is personally vested in the success of the ObamaCare scheme. Currently, she is a named defendant in at least 11 lawsuits filed by the states and others challenging the constitutionality of the law, specifically the individual mandate portion.

With regard to the individual mandate portion of ObamaCare, the federal government argues that not doing something is the same as doing something and that if enough people don’t do something, then that inaction is linked together and exerts a cumulative effect on commerce. As it touches and concerns commerce, it may, therefore, be rightly regulated by Congress under the terms of the Commerce Clause.

New American

However, the recent court challenges the Administration faces, Sebelius still is in favor of Obamacare. While speaking at the Newseum forum, Sebelius warned those in attendance that the American people would be in a “precarious” position should the various lawsuits (or the threat of Congressional repeal) eliminate the individual mandate.

And in an interview with Bloomberg Government, the former Kansas Governor promoted the concept of Accountable Care Organizations (ACO), a fundamental component of ObamaCare’s promise of cost-saving overhauls to the present treatment payment model.

Yet despite the new data on verified data on just how the ACOs will reduce costs, Secretary Sebelius reports that many unnamed health care providers have contacted her office and are excited to have this opportunity. In fact, there is almost no evidence of the benefits that ACOs will deliver to the nation’s health care infrastructure.

Also the Secretary said unless the myriad of changes mandated by the year-old health care law are implemented as scheduled, the United States will continue to endure the insufferably long wait from a time a procedure is recognized to the the time it is made available to patients.

But the American people are alarmed over the fact that there is such disregard for the very limited and specifically enumerated powers granted to Congress and the President by the Constitution. The Affordable Healthcare Act, is just one of many unconstitutional laws passed by Congress and enforced by the executive branch. It is unique, however, in that for the first time in the history of our Republic, the federal government is mandating the purchase of a commodity.

This has many constitutionalists fearing that if the federal government is permitted to enforce such a requirement, then there is no sphere of activity that will not fall within the scope of Congress’s and the Executive’s regulatory power.