Democrats really love their committees.

I was making my way through the reconciliation bill passed in the House yesterday, when I came across Section 123 establishing a Health Benefits Advisory Committee. After all the debate about death panels and more generally about how much involvement the government should or shouldn’t have in determining health care benefits, I had to stop and read this section. Not only that, but I’m intrigued by what seems to be an obsession Democrats have with creating new titles for people who are bestowed with power, while Americans are in the dark about these pseudo-legislators. Czars, advisors, commissioners. And now there’s a new advisory committee to add to the list.

According to the bill, the Health Benefits Advisory Committee will be made up of “a panel of medical experts and other experts…to recommend covered benefits and essential, enhanced and premium plans.” The bill requires some diversity of background from members, specifying that the committee be made up of people from the insurance industry, employers, labor and experts in health care financing. That might be reassuring but for the fact that panel members are all appointees of the President and the Comptroller General, so it is reasonable to assume that individuals’ political persuasions will drive these appointments.

Further, here’s where there is real cause for concern for all of us who have been fearful of this type of government overreach into our health care decisions, Section 123 (b). This section establishes the objective of the panel, which is to recommend benefit standards to the Committee for execution. Benefit standards are defined as:

(5) BENEFIT STANDARDS DEFINED- In this subtitle, the term `benefit standards’ means standards respecting-

(A) the essential benefits package described in section 122, including categories of covered treatments, items and services within benefit classes, and cost-sharing; and

(B) the cost-sharing levels for enhanced plans and premium plans (as provided under section 203(c)) consistent with paragraph (5).”

Further, any private plans in existence will have to meet these same benefit standards in order to continue to exist as qualified health care plans under the new system (under Subtitle C, Section 121.) Therefore, this panel of so-called experts appointed by politicians will literally set the bar for what is and isn’t covered. The only ray of hope here that I can see is that the panel will essentially set the floor, while private insurance companies can go beyond the standards of coverage dictated by the panel — at least for as long as they’re in existence and able to comply with all the regulatory requirements set out by ObamaCare — which is a topic I’ll leave for another post.

If Section 123 doesn’t give the government the power to decide what will be allowed and paid for in terms of treatment and for what groups of people, then I don’t know what it does. So for President Obama to get back on the stump yesterday in Iowa and make light of people’s concerns, is simply appalling. With 55% of Americans and 59% of Seniors in favor repealing the bill, and 64% of Americans believing the bill will be bad for the country, the President mocked his critics rather than address legitimate concerns about the bill.

“There’s been plenty of fear-mongering, plenty of overheated rhetoric. You turn on the news, you’ll see the same folks are still shouting about there’s going to be an end of the world because this bill passed. (Laughter.) I’m not exaggerating. Leaders of the Republican Party, they called the passage of this bill “Armageddon.” (Laughter.) Armageddon. “End of freedom as we know it.”

So after I signed the bill, I looked around to see if there any — (laughter) — asteroids falling or — (applause) — some cracks opening up in the Earth. (Laughter.) It turned out it was a nice day. (Laughter.) Birds were chirping. Folks were strolling down the Mall. People still have their doctors.”

Getting back to these panels of experts, the creation of this group shows how flawed Democrats’ vision for health care is. They believe that this select few, chosen by the President, can better gauge what people need from their health care plans than the people themselves who are using the plans. This refining of standards of what is and isn’t covered could have been accomplished more quickly and efficiently if people were allowed to buy into insurance contracts with any provider of their choosing. Now, government regulation as to how consumers could purchase health insurance (which didn’t allow insurance from being bought across state lines) has lead to more government regulation to solve the problem government created in the first place. And thus government begets more government. This nearly 3,000 page bill is just the beginning.

Tags: health care reform