Words Mean Something

Dear Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas,

Recently you were asked by a CNS reporter, “What part of the Constitution do you think gives Congress the authority to mandate that individuals have to purchase health insurance?”

And you answered, “Well, I just think the Constitution charges Congress with the health and well-being of the people.” As CNS rightly reports: The words “health” and “well-being” do not appear anywhere in the Constitution.

Senator Lincoln, words mean something.

Dear President Obama,

You have repeatedly told the American people your health care bill will not ration care.

According to an editorial written by Senator Tom Coburn in today's Wall Street Journal, "the Reid bill (in sections 3403 and 2021) explicitly empowers Medicare to deny treatment based on cost. An Independent Medicare Advisory Board created by the bill—composed of permanent, unelected and, therefore, unaccountable members—will greatly expand the rationing practices that already occur in the program. Medicare, for example, has limited cancer patients' access to Epogen, a costly but vital drug that stimulates red blood cell production. It has limited the use of virtual, and safer, colonoscopies due to cost concerns. And Medicare refuses medical claims at twice the rate of the largest private insurers."

President Obama, words mean something.

Dear Kathleen Sebelius,

After the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force advised women under 50 to forgo their annual mammogram screening you announced the recommendation was merely that and did not carry the force of law.

Yet, as Senator Coburn writes, "...the Reid bill itself contradicts them in section 2713. The bill explicitly states, on page 17, that health insurance plans "shall provide coverage for" services approved by the task force. This chilling provision represents the government stepping between doctors and patients. When the government asserts the power to provide care, it also asserts the power to deny care."

Ms. Sebelius, words mean something.

(image: senate.gov)