Some American Indian tribes are said to have put very old members of their tribe out in the cold to die when they had reached the point where they could no longer contribute anything productive to the group. The Democrats in the Senate apparently share this approach.

Mike Enzi (R, Wyo) introduced an amendment that would prevent the new “Center for Health Outcomes Research and Evaluation” (it’s part of the Democratic healthcare bill in the Senate – I previously predicted its purpose would be to ration medical care) from putting a value on life-saving treatment by using “quality of life” and “cost-effectiveness” measures “for the denial of Medicare benefits to patients against their wishes.” The democrats rejected the amendment on a party line vote. Thus don’t be surprised when, if this bill passes, old people are denied care solely because they’re old. European countries already do this. In the UK there is an age limit for chronic dialysis. Thus the Democrats are on record as favoring the use of non-medical factors as instruments to deny medically useful treatment.

The AARP supports the kind of healthcare reform now proposed by the Congress. It’s hard to understand whom they represent. It doesn’t seem to be their membership who have a lot to lose if this legislation passes into law.

Make no mistake, rationing of healthcare by fiat and delay is the inevitable consequence of what our legislators (almost all of them Democrats) are now doing. Medical care in the US needs reforming, but “reform” that makes a troubled system worse is not the answer. It’s easy to change something. Make it worse and you’ve changed it.

Bring out your old.

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