The Irrational Rationing of Care

In a February 12 The Health Care Blog , “The Stimulus Pregame, “ Washington insider Robert Laszewski neatly captures the essence of Obama’s health care cost containment reform strategy.

He says there are two “already agreed upon health care ideas – comparative research about which treatments work best and the creation of a nationwide system of medical records.

Presumably these two approaches would achieve “total transparency.” In any event, they prompted these set of three lamentable limericks.

Holier Than Thou

Using data to create cost-tight federal controls,
Based on comparisons and EMRs are reasonable goals.
But I would remind policy gurus,
And those who share similar views,
Those who stand to be hurt will find exploitable holes.

In the health care world of perplexing complexities,
Wonks know not of endless concavities and convexities.
Health care will never be a data- or leak-proof machine,
That can be reduced to some overall routine.
Dominated and dictated from above by objectivities.

So, if you really want workable reform,
Why not create a performable perfect storm?
Why not listen to patients and doctors on theground?
Where reasonable reform is to be found.
Rather than heeding those at the top, where unreality is the norm.