[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 30 (Friday, February 13, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H1592]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         KEEP THE GOVERNMENT OUT OF MEDICAL TREATMENT DECISIONS

  (Mr. HERGER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, we just voted on this so-called stimulus 
bill that wasn't even available for us to see until late last night. It 
should come as no surprise that in this monumental piece of 
legislation, there are items in it that could not have survived careful 
scrutiny in the light of day.
  Many of my colleagues have pointed out the wildly extravagant 
spending and the lack of real job creation and economic recovery in 
this bill. I fully share those concerns, but I also want to call to 
attention a little-known provision tucked six pages deep inside this 
1,100 page bill. The Democrats are spending $1.1 billion on a new 
Federal board to conduct health care research. Sounds innocent enough, 
right?
  Unfortunately, this provision is the camel's nose under the tent in 
the Democrats' quest to have the Federal Government push doctors aside 
and put Washington in charge of patients' health treatment options. 
This board, the Federal coordinating Council on Comparative 
Effectiveness Research, will be comprised of 15 Federal bureaucrats, 
all appointed by the President. Not a single practicing physician or 
patient advocate will be allowed to sit on this board.
  Mr. Speaker, this is the first step of government-run health care. 
Despite numerous requests from patient groups, this bill does not 
include a single protection to ensure that this research will not be 
used by Medicare, Medicaid, VA, DOD or private health insurance to deny 
access to needed treatments. The goal of this board is to conduct 
research that will allow the Federal Government to deny needed health 
care. Physician groups are very concerned that this board and its 
research will significantly harm the patient/doctor relationship.
  Other governments have been using this research to deny medically 
necessary care for years. The British Government currently uses similar 
research to restrict treatment using a formula that divides the cost of 
the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to live. 
Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments 
for diseases that affect the elderly. For example, in 2006, the British 
Government used comparative effective research to say that elderly 
patients with macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in 
one eye before they could get a new drug to save the other eye. It took 
almost 3 years of public protest before the board reversed its 
decision.
  Mr. Speaker, Americans expect better and deserve more. Physicians and 
patients, not faceless Federal bureaucrats, should be in charge of 
health care decisions.
  Republicans will continue to fight to keep this Federal Government 
out of our American's medicine cabinets. In the very near future I'll 
be introducing legislation to protect patients from the misuse of 
comparative effective research and ensure that seniors continue to have 
access to medically necessary treatments.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge every Member of this House to join me in this 
effort.

                          ____________________