Yes, there WILL be rationing

The "fear mongering" of the Right continues unabated. Let's look at some of the facts.

First and foremost let's understand that just because someone wants a "medical service" doesn't imply they need it. In a survey a few years ago primary physicians reported that they were completely unable to do anything for about 40% of their patients where either nothing could be done or OTC medications were all that were required. That's 40% of all routine medical visits that drive unnecessary spending in medical services. Of course the Independent Payment Advisory Board is probably not going to be doing anything about these unnecessary medical expenditures.

Where we do have a problem that the Independent Payment Advisory Board is unnecessary testing procedures that are quite common. How many times do tests need to be run before it can be assumed that the problem doesn't exist?

I've personally been in this situation so I can relate it first hand. I had a "thyroid" problem that was found during a routine medical examination. There was a "hardness" detected by my doctor that could indicate thyroid cancer so that doctor sent me to a specialist. While this was quite some time ago I believe the first test was where I was injected with a radioactive substance and then x-rayed but I could be wrong. Anyway the test was inconclusive so another appointment was made for a biopsy to be performed.  A biopsy is done by using a syringe to pull cells from the thyroid so they stick a needle into your neck on both sides... repeatedly... to obtain enough cells. For me it was basically a form of torture and after three times on each side I said, "Enough" as they had all the cells they were going to get from me. The specialists said that the biopsy might be inconclusive as well and there was another test that could be run. At that point I had to ask some questions. First of all both of my thyroids were "hard" so I asked how common that was with thyroid cancer. The specialist said that rarely ever happened and it was far more likely to be a simply viral infection. Well guess what, the biopsy came back "inconclusive" because no cancer cells were found and that was the end of the testing for me. They would have done more but I said no way and, of course, I didn't have thyroid cancer and addtional testing would have been a pure waste of money.

So there are reasonable limits that should be imposed on multiple tests for possible illness. Just because there's another test doesn't mean that the test should be conducted unless there's a serious belief it's needed. In my case the chances of both thyroids having cancer was virtually nil so additional testing was completely unwarranted. In fact by the time the biopsy results had come in the hardness of the thyroids was already gone.

Now that is what the Independent Payment Advisory Board is going to be looking at. It isn't going to prevent any necessary medical expenditures but it is going to objectively look at cases where unnecessary procedures that are not required are to be eliminated. No one's health is going to suffer from the decisions of the Independent Payment Advisory Board and no one is going to die from it. 

How strange that "Republicans" oppose the elimination of unnecessary medical procedures that drive up the costs of health care where no one dies or get sick because of it but seem to be willing to allow 45,000 Americans to die every year because they don't have health insurance.