IN ALL FAIRNESS

WLF s Civic Communications Program publishes In All Fairness in the national edition of the New York Times. The op-ed feature reaches over 5 million readers in 70 major markets, as well as a diverse group of thought leaders, decision makers, and the public. THE NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED MONDAY, July 18, 2011

Government Cant Cure Our Ills

The causes of Americans current disillusionment with government are many, but one seems to stand out: Government is convinced it can solve all of our problems, but consistently fails to deliver results. This frustrating contradiction casts an ominous shadow over our leaders drive to expand the nations massive health care regulatory structure. The reigning symbol of government intrusion into our health care choices the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) mostly doesnt take effect for several years. But federal officials and even some states have already started down the irreparable road toward bureaucratized medical decision-making. For instance, an FDA advisory panel recently recomBureaucrats mended that the practicing agency withdraw approval of the drug Avastin for medicine late-stage breast cancer care. If FDAs Commissioner concurs, patients will effectively lose access to the drug because a handful of bureaucrats deemed it insufficiently beneficial. Separately, a Centers for Disease Control vaccine advisory panel has signaled its opposition to federal purchase and use of a meningitis vaccine FDA has approved for infants. A ruling that this use isnt sufficiently cost-effective would be a virtual death sentence for the infant vaccine and perhaps scores of children. Meanwhile, in the state of Washington, a law imposing rigid care requirements and prescription limits on the treatment of acute pain will soon take effect. This inflexible law has already encouraged doctors to stop treating patients for pain and has reduced
WA S H INGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION

the availability of opioids, leaving scores of patients with debilitating pain and doubt. At the national level, numerous laws have vastly expanded the number of people eligible for federal Medicare assistance. Instead of figuring out how to pay for all those new recipients, Congress shifted cost cutting responsibility through an Daniel J. Popeo ObamaCare provision to a Chairman barely accountable adviso- Washington ry board. Starting in 2014, Legal Foundation it could effectively cut benefits for millions of seniors. Even worse, federal officials seem to have just realized that these new Medicare recipients will need doctors, and are worried about whether primary care physicians will turn away government-insured patients. To test doctors willingness to treat Medicare patients, health bureaucrats designed a plan this past spring to secretly investigate primary care physicians with mystery shoppers. Once The New York Times exposed this truly bad idea, federal officials abandoned the plan, but it shows how far government will go to solve problems of its own creation. All this is just the beginning of efforts to permanently implant bureaucracy into Americas health care system. Governments faith in itself may be unshakable, but we just cant trust it to make life and death medical decisions. The cost of failure lowered quality of life for all is far too high.

2009 MA SSA C H U SET T S AVE., N W

WA SH IN GTON , D C 20036

http://www.wlf.o r g

In All Fairness is pr o d u ced t h r o u g h W L F s C ivic C o m m u n icat io n s Pr o g r am .