Good reason to fear government’s influence
February 28, 2010
PHYSICIANS TODAY have relative freedom to prescribe the best treatments to meet the unique needs of individual patients. In your Feb. 22 editorial “To trim medical costs, apply ‘best practices,’ ’’ you propose that these important decisions be limited to treatments or medications approved by a committee appointed by the US government without knowledge of the unique condition of each patient. Are we all comfortable with that? Committees with such power would undoubtedly be influenced by those with political or ideological agendas. Will we (literally) be able to live with that?
Those who keep telling Americans that health care is “broken’’ should note the recent CNN survey that indicated 86 percent of Americans think that government is broken. That is why they resist turning all medical decisions over to the government. That is one reason they resist the Senate and House bills that would force all physicians to obey the “best practices’’ decisions of the US government.
Richard E. Ralston
Executive director
Americans for Free Choice in Medicine
Newport Beach, Calif.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/letters/articles/2010/02/28/good_reason_to_fear_governments_influence/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Editorial%2FOp-ed+pages --
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