A Fed Takeover by Any Other Name... | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

A Fed Takeover by Any Other Name... | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary: "resident Obama has gone to great pains to deny that his proposed health-care reform is a government takeover of the health-care system.

'Nothing could be further from the truth,' he has said.

Yet it's hard to see the 1,994-page bill that the House passed last night as anything else. After all, the bill uses the command 'shall' -- as in 'you shall do this,' 'businesses shall do that' and 'government shall do some other thing' -- 3,345 times.

Not a great deal of choice or options there.

To make sure that we obey these 'shalls,' the bill would create 111 government agencies, boards, commissions and other bureaucracies -- all overseen by a new health-care czar bearing the Orwellian title 'commissioner of health choices.'"

"That means every time a doctor decides on a treatment, he or she would have to ask: 'Does the government think I'm doing this too much? Will I be penalized if I order this test?'

The government would also undertake comparative- and cost-effectiveness research and use the results to impose practice guidelines on providers."

"Given that the government has mismanaged everything from "cash for clunkers" to the swine-flu vaccine (not to mention the Iraq war and the response to Hurricane Katrina), how much of our health-care system do we really want it to control?"