Next Up For Obama: HEALTHCARE

This is Mr Obama's Time.

And he's going to push whilst he's got the cushion for pushin' . . .

For SCOTUS, you can be guaranteed that since it lost Sandra Day O'Connor and will soon lose Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Mr Obama's nomination will be a female, and she'll be black or Mexican. He won't choose an Asian because they don't have an effective lobby, aren't a sufficient victim class, there aren't too many Asians involved in the Chicago Machine and they haven't paid enough cash to he and his supporters. So sorry. Money and politics. You can be guaranteed his selection will be as far Left as he can imagine because now, early on, is His Time.

Next, you'll see healthcame come up to the Obama Plate. He'll push all he can to enact something this year. Again, because it's His Time. It Is Written.

The Demorats already admit (video: Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) Admits Obama Healthcare Plan Will Destroy Insurance Industry) their goal is clearly to place government in charge -- kill the healthcare industry -- with your government-assigned doctor in a distant second place and you in third place. You won't know what's good for you, nor will your doctor -- only government.

And here's only a portion of what you'll get:

Wait times for surgery in Canada at all-time high: study
Last Updated: Monday, October 15, 2007 10:33 AM ET
The Canadian Press
A typical Canadian seeking surgical or other therapeutic treatment had to wait 18.3 weeks in 2007, an all-time high, according to new research published Monday by independent research organization the Fraser Institute.

"Despite government promises and the billions of dollars funnelled into the Canadian health-care system, the average patient waited more than 18 weeks in 2007 between seeing their family doctor and receiving the surgery or treatment they required," said Nadeem Esmail, director of Health System Performance Studies at the Fraser Institute and co-author of the 17th annual edition of Waiting Your Turn: Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada.

Total waiting times increased in six provinces: Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. (CBC)

The survey measures median waiting times to document the extent to which queues for visits to specialists and for diagnostic and surgical procedures are used to control health-care expenditures.

"It's becoming clearer that Canada's current health-care system cannot meet the needs of Canadians in a timely and efficient manner, unless you consider access to a waiting list timely and efficient," Esmail added.

The 2007 survey found the total median waiting time for patients between referral from a general practitioner and treatment, averaged across all 12 specialties and 10 provinces surveyed, increased to 18.3 weeks from 17.8 weeks observed in 2006. This was primarily due to an increase in the first waiting period, between seeing the general practitioner and attending a consultation with a specialist.

Total waiting times increased in six provinces: Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. This masked the decreased waiting times in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

Waiting times best in Ontario
Ontario recorded the shortest waiting time overall (the wait between visiting a general practitioner and receiving treatment) at 15.0 weeks, followed by British Columbia (19.0 weeks) and Quebec (19.4 weeks). Saskatchewan (27.2 weeks), New Brunswick (25.2 weeks) and Nova Scotia (24.8 weeks) recorded the longest waits in Canada.

The waiting time between referral by a GP and consultation with a specialist rose to 9.2 weeks from the 8.8 weeks recorded in 2006. The shortest waits for specialist consultations were in Ontario (7.6 weeks), Manitoba (8.2 weeks) and British Columbia (8.8 weeks).

The longest waits for consultation with a specialist were recorded in New Brunswick (14.7 weeks), Newfoundland and Labrador (13.5 weeks) and Prince Edward Island (12.7 weeks).
The waiting time between specialist consultation and treatment — the second stage of waiting — increased to 9.1 weeks from 9.0 weeks in 2006.

The shortest specialist-to-treatment waits were found in Ontario (7.3 weeks), Alberta (8.9 weeks) and Quebec (9.4 weeks), while the longest waits were in Saskatchewan (16.5 weeks), Nova Scotia (13.6 weeks) and Manitoba (12.0 weeks).

Among the various specialties, the shortest total waits (between referral by a general practitioner and treatment) occurred in medical oncology (4.2 weeks), radiation oncology (5.7 weeks) and elective cardiovascular surgery (8.4 weeks).

Patients waited longest between a GP referral and orthopedic surgery (38.1 weeks), plastic surgery (34.8 weeks) and neurosurgery (27.2 weeks).

Nova Scotia best for CT scans
As in past years, patients also experienced significant waiting times for various diagnostic technologies across Canada: computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound scans.

The median wait for a CT scan across Canada was 4.8 weeks. British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia had the shortest wait for CT scans (4.0 weeks), while the longest wait occurred in Manitoba (8.0 weeks).

The median wait for an MRI across Canada was 10.1 weeks. Patients in Ontario experienced the shortest wait for an MRI (7.8 weeks), while Newfoundland and Labrador residents waited longest (20.0 weeks).

As my brother pointed out: "And for those left-leaning folks who think we can do better (or even as well) than Canada in health care, remember this: Canada does not have to put up with legions of lawyers hiding behind every potted plant in every doctor's office just waiting for something to go amiss. NOBODY will ever argue that the key behind access to heath care is MONEY and whenever you take ANY money out of that which is available for health care, it leaves just that much less for the folks who really need it and lengthens the waiting time for access to it."

You'll get: rationing.

The devil is in the details, and how many people will read the details? What kind of healthcare can you craft in a ramdown fashion?

If it's single-payer (government only) healthcare then do what I call the "logical extension" -- this means that, like any other budget item, there is a limited pool of cash available each budget year. When that pool runs out, rationing begins. There are only so many beds. A knee replacement at 55? No, the government says, you're a tad long in the tooth. We'd get more bang for our buck out of someone, say, in her late 30's or early 40's.

Some systems (and watch out!) will not even allow you to possess your own privately-paid healthcare. Your chances of being able to select or even keep your favorite doctor? Perish the thought, the G knows all. Hope you don't want any cosmetic-type surgery, that's just plain unwarranted and a waste of money.

Everyone will be equal. Isn't that admirable? So that nice, new, young illegal Mexican on the waiting list just may receive the heart or kidney way ahead of your brother, your sister, yourself.

If you think it's even remotely difficult fighting your HMO or other health organization for any number of reasons to include billing, actual medical care or otherwise, you have no idea what fighting is like, if you've ever had to fight any government entity, much less the federal government.

You will get, as I've said and written on any number of prior occasions, a healthcare system with all the efficiency, consideration, courtesy, logic, care and humanity of your local DMV.

You thought there was an amnesty ramdown? A stimulus ramdown? Gird thy loins, you're about to be assaulted by the healthcare ramdown. Because the G doesn't want you to glean the details.

So, all you fat young kids? Best not get sick. Or older. Because you won't care for the way you're not going to get treated.

BZ