The primary point of Obamacare is centralized control of health care, toward the end that costs be restricted.  That means restrictions on services.  And that means increased suffering for devalued populations, particularly the elderly and people with serious disabilities.

The UK has again showed us our future if we don’t wake up.  The Orwellian-named NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) is cutting pain control!  From the story:

The Government’s drug rationing watchdog says “therapeutic” injections of steroids, such as cortisone, which are used to reduce inflammation, should no longer be offered to patients suffering from persistent lower back pain when the cause is not known. Instead the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is ordering doctors to offer patients remedies like acupuncture and osteopathy.

Specialists fear tens of thousands of people, mainly the elderly and frail, will be left to suffer excruciating levels of pain or pay as much as £500 each for private treatment. The NHS currently issues more than 60,000 treatments of steroid injections every year. NICE said in its guidance it wants to cut this to just 3,000 treatments a year, a move which would save the NHS £33 million.

And this illustrates what happens when a small board has such power–they pick and choose the evidence they wish to hear:

The NICE guidelines admit that evidence was limited for many back pain treatments, including those it recommended. Where scientific proof was lacking, advice was instead taken from its expert group. But specialists are furious that while the group included practitioners of alternative therapies, there was no one with expertise in conventional pain relief medicine to argue against a decision to significantly restrict its use.

“Clinical excellence?” I think not!

Now, let’s broaden the picture for a moment: There is a huge push to allow assisted suicide in the UK and Scotland as a way of relieving suffering.  Can you imagine the future if assisted suicide passes there?  We will let you live in agony, but assisted suicide is cheap. So, c’mon down to the euthanasia clinic!