We as a nation can’t afford to learn the same lesson that Oregon is learning the hard way.
A brief look at the state’s rationing policy demonstrates how out of whack the Oregon Health Services Commission’s medical priorities are. For example, under the OHSC directive, a person in need of an emergency appendectomy (prioritized 84th) would be denied that treatment before an individual in need of treatment for “tobacco dependence” (ranked 6th).

The state’s prioritization database reads like a case study in medical prioritization turned on its head. Like those pushing preventive care in the current national debate, administrators say the rationing program’s foundational focus is on prevention rather than on actual medical conditions and emergencies. This was borne out of a desire to save the government more money in the long run.

However, as always happens when bureaucrats and elected officials are left to work out the nuts and bolts of a program, the determinations . . .

. . . of what is covered under Oregon’s public option, and where those covered conditions fall on the rationing list, were heavily influenced by special interest groups and lobbyists who are paid handsome amounts for gaining access to the ears of state government officials and cost-effectiveness regulators.

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