First, Do No Harm

Part of the Hippocratic Oath, the vow that all doctors must take before receiving their licence to practice, goes like this: "First, do no harm."

If only policy makers were forced to do the same thing.

SIGN THE PETITION

This week, a Health Policy Consensus Group, organized by the Galen Institute and made up of some of the leading experts on health policy today, released a statement saying that they are "gravely concerned" about some of the health policy ideas being given serious consideration, believing that they "would make matters worse, not better…and would not fulfill the goals and promises made to the American people."

Here are a few of the groups major objections to the Obama/congressional plan:

* A new government health insurance plan that would cause up to 119 million people to lose the private health insurance they have today and "ultimately ration care and services, driving out innovation, competition, and patient-centered quality."

* An employer "play-or-pay" mandate that is basically a new tax on jobs and will cause more lost jobs and lower wages for workers.

* A uniform, government-defined package of benefits that will leave us with a "choice" of only the expensive one-size-fits-all plan mandated by government.

* A mandate that individuals must purchase insurance, leading to government dictates of what insurance must cover, what we must pay, and what fines and penalties we will face if we don't comply.

* A National Health Insurance Exchange that "would steamroll over private choice and patient preferences by providing a vehicle to extend sweeping federal regulation into virtually every corner of our health sector."

* Federal interference in the practice of medicine through a federal health board, comparative effectiveness review, and other government intrusions into medical decision-making that creates "an irresistible temptation for politicians to go beyond providing information and start restricting the treatment choices available to patients."

This election, as we were so often reminded, was premised on change. Well, change is most certainly coming. The question is, do we really like what the changes will bring?

Join the Health Policy Consensus Group and sign this petition against a government takeover of our health care system.