Health Care Rationing for Seniors is Another Problem in New Obama Plan

Health Care Rationing for Seniors is Another Problem in New Obama Plan: "Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The new health care plan President Barack Obama released today contains massive abortion funding, but a top pro-life attorney who monitors bioethics issues says it presents other concerns. The changes Obama proposes to the Senate health care bill also promote rationing.

Burke Balch, an attorney who is the director of the Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics at the National Right to Life Committee, explained the problems to LifeNews.com.

'The Obama health care proposal issued this morning would take away from America’s senior citizens their current right to add their own money on top of the government Medicare contribution to get health insurance less likely to deny treatment through tightly controlled managed care,' Balch said.

'It would do so even as it cuts the government contribution to Medicare by hundreds of billions of dollars,' he adds.

Under “Title III . . . Guaranteeing Benefits for Seniors by Ending Overpayments to Insurance Companies,” Balch notes that the Obama proposal talks about Medicare Advantage plans -- the alternative that now allows older Americans, if they wish, to pay more to get insurance less likely to ration treatment.

The Obama plan says Medicare Advantage plans will “be prohibited from charging seniors more than they would pay for services delivered under the traditional Medicare program.”"