HEALTH BILL MAY COST LIVES: So Says New York Times Front Page Story (Burke Balch available in DC or by phone)
HEALTH BILL MAY COST LIVES: So Says New York Times Front Page Story (Burke Balch available in DC or by phone)
A New York Times article provides scary evidence that the national health bill’s provisions designed to force down spending on health care may cause rationing resulting in premature deaths rather than cutting out waste.
The Senate health care bill, now rushing toward final passage, contains numerous provisions giving government officials the power to limit what patients, doctors, and hospitals can spend on health care. These have been justified by claims, primarily by researchers at Dartmouth College, that the life-preserving treatments ordered by some health care providers can be significantly cut back without impairing health care quality.
Conducting Talk Show interviews on this vital topic is attorney Burke Balch, director of National Right to Life Committee’s Powell Center for Medical Ethics and featured speaker of the new DVD Special, “Healthcare for a Pro-life Perspective,” available at: www.CleanTV.com
Burke shares with your audience how the New York Times article reports that recent research shows the Dartmouth studies to be flawed because they only looked at the cost of treating patients who died, not those who lived. A new study shows that for those in heart failure, the hospital that provided the most treatment to its patients – costing more – had one-third fewer deaths over a six-month period that hospitals that provided fewer treatments at less cost.
The Times gave an example:
Take the case of Salah Putrus, who at age 71 had a long history of heart failure After repeated visits to his local hospital near Burbank, Calif., Mr. Putrus was referred to [the Ronald Reagan] U.C.L.A. [Medical Center] this year to be evaluated for a heart transplant.
Some other medical centers might have considered Mr. Putrus too old for the surgery. But U.C.L.A.’s attitude was “let’s see what we can do for him,” said his physician there, Dr. Tamara Horwich.
Indeed, Mr. Putrus recalled, Dr. Horwich and her colleagues “did every test.” They changed his medicines to reduce the amount of water he was retaining. They even removed some teeth that could be a potential source of infection.
His condition improved so much that more than six months later, Mr. Putrus has remained out of the hospital and is no longer considered in active need of a transplant.
Burke Balch has been carefully following the ins and outs of the multiple-thousand-page health care restructuring bills, and is an expert on how they will ration lifesaving medical care.
“We are seeing more and more evidence that common sense is right – you can’t get more for less,” Burke Balch says. “You can’t force Americans to spend less than they want to on health care, as the Senate and House bills would do, and expect that with less treatment the same number of people will survive life-threatening illnesses and injuries. Obamacare is a prescription for rationing the American people can’t afford.”
NOTE: Talk Show hosts are requested to mention that the DVD Special, “Healthcare for a Pro-life Perspective,” is available at: www.CleanTV.com for a download fee of 99 cents. Thank you.
THE FOLLOWING BLOG POST AND N.Y. TIMES ARTICLE MAY BE HELPFUL DURING SHOW PREP:
http://powellcenterformedicalethics.blogspot.com/2009/12/new-york-times-story-shows-how-health.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/health/23ucla.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
ABOUT BURKE BALCH:
Burke J. Balch, J.D. currently serves as the Director of the Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics, associated with the National Right to Life Committee, specializing in euthanasia-related issues.
Prior to this Burke worked for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights as Attorney-Advisor, helping to create a report on the topic of denial of life-saving medical treatment to children with disabilities ("Baby Doe" cases).
Mr. Balch has also served as Chief Staff Counsel for the National Legal Center for the Medically Dependent and Disabled.
To schedule an interview with BURKE BALCH, call: 630-848-0750.