The paranoid right is getting deep into it with the notion that   
    the whole point of National Health Care is over control, not   
    health care. It's stupid enough, (why would they care?), and   
    misdirected. The real problem is on the state level, where the   
    government likes to impose religious and moral rules to decide   
    medical issues.   
      
    To a real libertarian, it doesn't matter what level of   
    government intrudes, the 10th amendment is really meaningless.   
    To them any government involvement, at any level, is   
    unacceptable. Yet the state of Ohio, under a republican governor   
    and a republican legislature, has been putting rules about drug   
    use in treatment ahead of medical considerations.   
      
    Not too long ago a columnist wrote up a story about a surgeon   
    who had his license suspended for six months, because his   
    prescribing of controlled pain relivers didn't meet state   
    standards. No where did it say he actually was prescribing   
    improperly in medical terms, just by state regulations.   
      
    Now I did have doubts about that, but I let it go, it would be a   
    lot of work to dig further into it. In Sunday's Toledo Blade   
    there is a guest editorial by a woman who is suffering from   
    severe chronic pain. She has three doctors she is seeing about   
    various aspects, and one surgeon who has operated on her basic   
    condition. The surgeon will prescribe effective pain medication,   
    but only for three months after surgery. After that the personal   
    physician is supposed to take over. None of the three doctors   
    she is seeing will prescribe opiods for pain relief, not at all.   
    The won't because, in the word of one of them, the state is   
    counting the pills he prescribes and he won't take the risk.   
      
    IOW, the doctor is afraid of repercussions from alleviating   
    suffering, in real cases of sever pain.   
      
    So, the states are exercising their 10th amendment rights to   
    restrict access to medical care in a manner Obama and the ACA   
    never even thought of doing. Isn't that just loverly? Isn't that   
    just Republican?   
      
    Commentary at www.tinyrul.com/pymv8kh   
      
      
   BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn   
      
   ... "Life is not particularly worth living, better luck next time?"   
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