American College of Surgeons: Traitors

In a particularly idiotic move, the American College of Surgeons recently expressed their support for HR 3200, the socialized medicine bill authored by the socialist House of Representatives. They based their support on a one-dimensional line of complaint, namely the use of the SGR or "sustainable growth rate" as the index to be used to calculate reimbursement rates through Medicare. HR 3200 promises to scrap the SGR as the index of importance.

Just a couple of problems, though. First, who has ever known Congress, when dominated by either party, to keep promises? Do the 70,000+ members of the ACS seriously believe that this bill will keep anybody in Washington honest? If they do, then this naivete would cause me to seriously question their credentials to perform surgery on kitchen toasters, much less human victims.

Secondly, there is the issue of the utter stupidity of trading one onerous regulatory policy for another, sure-to-be more onerous one, considering that the authors of both strategies have historically shown themselves pathologically incompetent and unwilling to hear logical arguments.

So let me get this straight. The ACS doesn't like the way government decides reimbursements by fiat, so they lend their support to giving more power to that government, so that it is even more capable of deciding reimbursements by fiat. Nice one, ACS. You should be so proud.