Sounding Off:

“This is war,” said Dr. George Watson, president-elect of the Assn. of American Physicians and Surgeons.

Everything that has been proposed in the 1,018-page House Resolution 3200 bill will contribute to the ruination of medicine. The bill is loaded with rules and regulations that will result in shoddy care and long waiting lines.

Public opposition is rising as Americans learn about what is in the bill.

Despite the efforts of liberal community organizers to mobilize support, calls to Congress are reportedly running 15 to 1 against the bill, according to Greg Scandlen (Consumer Power Report No. 187, July 24, 2009).

Some of the mischievous features coming to light are:

 Mandatory “end-of-life counseling” for seniors, at least every five years.

This amounts to an attempt to convince seniors to die, according to former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey.

A “quality reporting initiative” will measure creation of and adherence to “orders for life-sustaining treatment” such as “artificially provided nutrition and hydration”

 Repeal of ERISA.

About 75% of employer-provided insurance is now governed by “freedom to purchase” rules under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. This keeps costs down by allowing businesses to avoid many costly state regulations. After a five-year grace period, all plans would be subjected to “bureaucratic nanomanagement.”

 Disappearing ink, invisible ink.

Nobody knows what will really be in the bill that Obama wants people to rush to support. It’s hard to rally public support, said Pharmaceutical Care Management Assn. President Mark Merritt, “around policy that doesn’t exist yet.”

 A monstrous, ugly bureaucracy.

A chart prepared by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) of the proposed structure for controlling medicine is so monstrous that Republicans are forbidden to send it to their constituents.

Why was John Shadegg’s proposed amendment voted down?

It reads: “Nothing in this section shall be construed to allow any federal employee or political employee to dictate how a medical provider practices medicine.”.

 Equal pay for unequal qualifications.

Section 1304 would raise Medicare and Medicaid payment to certified nurse midwives to the same level that obstetricians receive for procedures coded the same (CNS News.com July 23). The midwives’ fee is currently only 65% as high.

The Wall Street Journal, in its lead July 21 editorial, stated that HR 3200 “looks to be one of the worst pieces of legislation ever introduced in Congress.”

The elderly will go from having the best access to care to the group with the least.

Dr. Gary Mohr writes that Satan couldn’t have devised a worse plan to destroy the world’s once best health-care system. He urges every physician to opt out of Medicare to escape this Machiavellian nightmare.

What happens when you go to the hospital and all the doctors have signed out?

MICHAEL ARNOLD GLUECK lives in Newport Beach.