Political Quotes

“A football player, okay. Now, according to the quality- adjusted life years, the 35-year-old has not only more years left to live, but he has more productive years, that is, he's going to work for the state more years. In fact, the 75-year-old probably is not going to work any more years. And so they have to draw the line someplace: Which thousand is going to get the hip replacement this year? And guess which one it's going to be? It's going to be the 35-year-old. That is the way the comparative effectiveness system works. That's the way they do it in England today. And anybody who's skeptical or doubts that that's where we're headed, they just need to read about Dr. Berwick and all the other information that's coming out on this. And again, there is much reported by The Wall Street Journal. It says, The decision is not whether or not we will ration care-- according to The Wall Street Journal--the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open. And right now, we are doing it blindly. It goes on and on to describe the fact that if the quality effectiveness research board is not, in essence, a death panel, then I don't know what really is because, just in the case with the gentleman with the prostate cancer, that's a decision between him and his doctor whether he gets chemotherapy, whether or not he can get surgery. Or maybe he decides, he and his doctor, that the cancer has advanced too far and he's just going to go home, take pain medication, and not fight it.…”