Scary health plan stuff in current Obama stimulus plan

Very interesting and scary information I just read about the current proposed stimulus plan. This column in Bloomberg.com by Betsy McCaughey details how this stimulus would create a new Health Information Technology organization.

In his stump speeches pushing the plan, Obama is only mentioning the parts about digitizing health care records to ensure easier access / flow of information / health records. I don't have a problem with this part. It's the parts about government taking over health care and dictating what treatments our doctors can prescribe that scares me. As McCaughey writes:

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”

There are many things like this contained in the stimulus package that make me strongly oppose passage. See previous post for a plan I do support.