Health Care Reform: Turning Physicians Into Drone Bureaucrats?

June 4, 2009
Wesley J. Smith

The New England Journal of Medicine, in addition to publishing important scientific and medical reports, is highly political. It supports assisted suicide, for example, and even respectfully published the Groningen Protocol–the Dutch check list to determine which babies can be murdered for eugenic reasons based on terminal or disabling conditions.

Not surprisingly, the NEJM has published articles weighing in on the great health care reform debate, such as this one by Michael E. Porter, a Harvard Business School professor. Porter says the answer to the current mess is the establishment of a ”value based system.”
From the article:

What we need now is a clear national strategy that sets forth a comprehensive vision for the kind of health care system we want to achieve and a path for getting there. The central focus must be on increasing value for patients — the health outcomes achieved per dollar spent…True reform will require both moving toward universal insurance coverage and restructuring the care delivery system. These two components are profoundly interrelated, and both are essential.Achieving universal coverage is crucial not only for fairness but also to enable a high-value delivery system. the rest