Having a board that excludes any treatment on the basis of comparative effectiveness is a danger to the health of those who fall outside the norms - and with the government setting those norms, any of us could end up as outliers.

The "stimulus" bill passed by the House creates this board. It allocates more than $1 billion for comparative effectiveness research. And it gives the new health and human services secretary (whoever that turns out to be) an additional $400 million at his or her discretion.

The supposed purpose of the bill - to "stimulate" the U.S. economy - is long gone.

As The New York Times's Robert Pear so eloquently put it: "For Democrats, it is also a tool for rewriting the...

Having a board that excludes any treatment on the basis of comparative effectiveness is a danger to the health of those who fall outside the norms - and with the government setting those norms, any of us could end up as outliers.

The "stimulus" bill passed by the House creates this board. It allocates more than $1 billion for comparative effectiveness research. And it gives the new health and human services secretary (whoever that turns out to be) an additional $400 million at his or her discretion.

The supposed purpose of the bill - to "stimulate" the U.S. economy - is long gone.

As The New York Times's Robert Pear so eloquently put it: "For Democrats, it is also a tool for rewriting the social contract with the poor, the uninsured and the unemployed, in ways they have long yearned to do." He noted this was taking place "with little notice and no public hearings."

That fits perfectly with the plan Daschle laid out - he never intended for Americans to know what was happening to their health-care structure. "I do not believe we should draft a bill laying out this vision in excruciating detail," he wrote in "Critical." "I believe a Federal Health Board should be charged with establishing the system's framework and filling in most of the details."

If his plan continues in his absence, this board will "fill in the details" of a completely government-driven health care overhaul.