Anatomy of a Bureaucratic Movement

The federal government controls most all aspects of the health care industry in the United States.  Any remaining independent portion is about to become bureaucratically controlled by decree as a consequence of the new law known widely as Obama Care. What follows is the anatomy of an aspect of how a bureaucracy accomplishes such a takeover.  

On August 3, 2011, the Dept of Treasury and its taxing arm, The IRS and the Dept of Labor and its Employee Benefits Security Administration and the Dept of Health and Human Services (HHS) issue “Interim final rules with request for comment” for “…group health plans and health insurance coverage in the group and individual markets under provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” which is known across the land as Obama Care.

Here is a sample, not particularly out of the ordinary or exceptionally confusing, chosen at random of the wording in this issuance: “Subtitles A and C of title I of the Affordable Care Act amend the requirements of title XXVII of the PHS Act (changes to which are incorporated into ERISA section 715). The preemption provisions of ERISA section 731 and PHS Act section 2724 2 (implemented in 29 CFR 2590.731(a) and 45 CFR 146.143(a)) apply so that the requirements of part 7 of ERISA and title XVII of the PHS Act, as amended by the Affordable Care Act, are not to be ‘‘construed to supersede any provision of State law which establishes, implements, or continues in effect any standard or requirement solely relating to health insurance issuers….”

Mind boggling isn’t it? Just think, this is the law that is being implemented and will control your health care decisions and reimbursements and those of your children and grandchildren and all who follow.

By the way, if you think that TheFundamentals is being pejoratively selective in highlighting the above wording, go to: http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf  and read the entire law for yourself; all 964 pages of it. We guarantee that no human being can read this law and explain it to any citizen affected by it.

This set of rules we are focusing on is the source of the entire hullabaloo from religious folk, particularly Catholics, who object to a government forcing them to provide insurance coverage for abortions, sterilizations and all sorts of contraceptives and devices that are being developed for either preventing a pregnancy or destroying it before it develops into a human being. They view it as government intrusion in their religious freedom guaranteed by the US constitution. We ask a larger question – “Just who in the he** do these fools think they are that they can enter this arena and issue indecipherable rules, laws and decrees that are not appropriate or comprehensible? It’s none of their business!”

Some ask why would the government stick their nose in the business of abortions and contraception and even enter the arena of religious freedom much less health care. Isn’t this supposed to be private health care decisions between a patient and doctor? Well here is why. We go right to the HHS bureaucracy website and give you their wording: “The Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) – the health insurance reform legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010 – helps make prevention affordable and accessible for all Americans by requiring health plans to cover preventive services and by eliminating cost sharing. Preventive services that have strong scientific evidence of their health benefits must be covered and plans can no longer charge a patient a copayment, coinsurance or deductible….”

So do you get it? It’s not just covered; it’s free; all because of “strong scientific evidence…” In the land of Obama all you need is someone who has a study supporting your position and enough votes to pass a law saying something is free and the bureaucracy gobbles its up because it means more bureaucrats; more jobs; more pay; more power. In real life people who do things with this justification and motivation are either ignored; viewed as non compos mentis, or elected to congress or the presidency. America has chosen the latter path and placed 536 of them in Washington DC.

What happens next? Well, the gang who dreams up the reasoning for this set of rules and making everything free points to something like this – “HHS commissioned an IOM study to review what preventive services are necessary for women’s health and well-being and should be considered in the development of comprehensive guidelines for preventive services for women.”

IOM? Who in the dickens is IOM? Well they are The Institute of Medicine and here is what HHS says about them – “HRSA (HHS sub group) is supporting the IOM’s recommendations on preventive services that address health needs specific to women and fill gaps in existing guidelines.”

So now you are getting the idea – HHS (the bureaucracy) wants a federal government health care system for more reasons than we can discuss in today’s essay and, together, they find an “authoritative source – IOM” which self describes itself as: ...an independent, nonprofit organization that works outside of government to provide unbiased and authoritative advice to decision makers and the public. “Source: http://www.iom.edu/  And IOM tells you in their “unbiased and authoritative” advice issued in a press release dated July 19, 2011, that “…eight preventive health services for women be added to the services that health plans will cover at no cost to patients…” including “contraceptive methods and counseling to prevent unintended pregnancies.” You can read the entire document at: http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=13181

By the way this IOM outfit is led by a guy named - Harvey V. Fineberg. We like to identify the bureaucrats and give you a way to contact them. You can contact Harvey at: fineberg@nas.edu

Eureka, we’ve got ourselves more than enough documentation and evidence to not only offer “free” things to all the women in the country but one big and growing bureaucracy to implement it and force their way into the life decisions of hundreds of millions of people forever. Folks, none of this is any of their business. Not just the contraceptive decrees but the entire intrusion into the free, independent health care decision business of free, independent Americans. If their focus is the poor, let them write the rules for the poor and leave the rest of us alone.

The Catholic Church is fighting this decree. Some other religious outfits have joined in. It also seems that this time the parishoners in the pews, the regular folk; don’t like what is going on. They can’t quite grasp the reasons why big government needs get involved in these issues with all their confusing laws and language and bureaucracies ruling on everyday matters for regular folk. But, some of those 536 you sent to Washington love it. Here are three female senators who have made this bureaucratic horror show their cause célèbre:

• Barbara Boxer      http://www.boxer.senate.gov/en/contact/

• Patty Murray      http://murray.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactMe

• Jeanne Shaheen      http://www.shaheen.senate.gov/contact/

This law (Obama Care) and its incomprehensible domination of the health care decisions of free and independent people must be discarded. This government takes every issue to the lowest common denominator and then writes the rules for everyone on that basis.  The result is a country beset with government mandated policies that bring us all down to the lowest possible standards.  Everyday you can see the consequences in our failing competitive performance in world markets.

This government must go.  Its bureaucracies must go.  And the millions of people feeding off it as parasites must be retrained to become free and independent citizens with real jobs.