Covered California, the state health insurance marketplace under Obamacare will require hospitals to meet designated targets in order to be kept “in-network”, which will also effect Medi-Cal (Medicaid) patients as well.. How will they do this? Require rationing, of course:

“Here’s how hospitals will be measured: They must perform fewer unnecessary cesarean sections, prescribe fewer opioids, and cut back on the use of imaging (X-rays, MRIs and CT scans) to diagnose and treat back pain.”

While doing things just to over-bill is a concern, the greater concern, especially for well-paid administrators, is to avoid triggering penalties, which would require rationing of medical services in line with some bureaucrats’ estimate, based on “research” provided by a think tank (Caliufornia Health Care Foundation), of how much life-saving procedures, drugs, and diagnostic equipment a hospital is allowed to dole out amongst the patients under their care.

All this, and nationalization of medical services hasn’t even happened yet. Of course, this new arrangement would only hurt the lowly serfs. The new feudal overlords can get treated with their own money and jet off elsewhere, the later of which might not be feasible for their pet bureaucrat/gentry underlings.

So much for allowing patients and doctors to determine their own care without government interference, which was a key component of Roe vs. Wade. But then, Leviathan knows what’s best, amirite?



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