State Sen. Randy Brogdon said the President’s plans for socialized medicine in the United States presents a huge threat to the quality and availability of healthcare in this country. But Brogdon, R-Owasso, said the threat to personal freedom was just as ominous.
“Obamacare is an overt attempt to control our lives from the cradle to the grave,” Brogdon said. “President Obama and supporters in Congress are pushing a single payer system. People don’t understand it means the federal government will have control of their healthcare decisions. The government will determine who gets cancer treatment and has access to medications, and will also try to influence end of life decisions that are now made by families and their doctors.”
Brogdon said Oklahomans should be alarmed by current federal proposals that would result in the rationing of health care and government intrusion into personal medical decisions.
“I believe most of our citizens would be outraged by the idea of an unelected federal Commissioner of Health choosing their benefits—but that’s what could happen. Cancer patients will have their health care severely rationed, and new restrictions will be placed on special needs individuals,” Brogdon said. “It would devastate our health care system, and our ability to make personal decisions about our own health.”
Brogdon pointed our that hospitals such as St. Francis in Tulsa, St. Mary’s in Enid, and Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City could be forced to provide government sanctioned abortions. Furthermore, hospital expansions would be controlled by the government.
“We need to restore, not destroy the doctor-patient relationship and expand, not limit, options for health care. Those can be accomplished through reforms that support portable personal insurance, health care savings accounts and other free market solutions,” Brogdon said. “But none of those are part of the discussions in Washington. Some people equate socialized medicine with free health care, but in fact, they’d be giving up more freedom than they realize. The cost of what the Obama administration is proposing is far too high. These programs and their supporters are digging a hole so deep we may never be able to climb out, unless we put an end to it as soon as possible.”