Roberts Motion to Commit on Rationing
Senator Roberts has offered a motion to commit regarding new bureaucracies that could ration Americans’ care.
Summary:
- The motion to commit instructs the Finance Committee to report offset amendments that would repeal the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, any new functions of the United States Preventive Services Task Force, and the Independent Payment Advisory Board.
Arguments in Favor:
- President Obama has previously made comments that there needs to be a “difficult democratic conversation” about what he views as excessive spending on end-of-life care, raising serious questions about whether or not the new bureaucracies created in the health law will be used to allow government bureaucrats to deny access to life-saving treatments.
- Several of the President’s senior advisors have also written positively about government bureaucrats intervening in personal health decisions, stating that “waiting lines represent a trade-off between patient costs and capital costs,” and that while “delays in access to high-technology care will, in some instances, lead to worse health for particular patients,” waiting times will “on average…have minimal effects.”
- Doctors and patients are the best individuals to determine the proper health choices for individuals, not government bureaucrats.