Painkillers, We don’ need no stinkin painkillers

LEE’S SUMMIT, JANUARY 11, 2013 – Just when you think no one can be truly that out of touch with reality; someone is eager to prove you wrong.

Some of the most common and most powerful prescription painkillers on the market will be restricted sharply in the emergency rooms at New York City’s 11 public hospitals, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Thursday in an effort to crack down on what he called a citywide and national epidemic of prescription drug abuse.  New York Times article January 10, 2013

This is government run amok in ways that even George Orwell in his famous novel 1984 would never have dared put in his fiction best-seller.  No one would believe it: Yet it is totally true.

I don’t argue with the point behind this story: Drugs are truly a problem in this country.  People all over America abuse drugs and alcohol on a daily basis.  However, Bloomberg’s approach – not to different from what’s coming with Obamacare since no country can have total healthcare for everyone no matter the cost.  Obamacare will in the end impose limits; just like England has had to do, just like Canada just to the north of us has had to do.

The United States enjoyed unrestricted medicine, and the greatest progress in fighting disease in the world; however when government dictates that “everyone” has to be covered it becomes a government program with limitations.  The “pay-as-you-go” medical system we had; supplemented by insurance was bad for people who could not afford it, who had no jobs, and who had to rely on the good Samaritan rules that ensured hospitals took care of the poor first, and asked for payment later.  If you had a job, if you had health insurance or if you were financially capable of seeking treatment you were in the best country for it.

Now we get stories like this one about Bloomberg making health decisions for the population.  My question is: Who elected him Chief Medical Officer of the Starship New York City?  I thought he was Mayor.

In his comments Mayor Bloomberg justified his decision by saying:

“Abuse of prescription painkillers in our city has increased alarmingly,” Mr. Bloomberg said in announcing the new policy at Elmhurst Hospital Center, a public hospital in Queens. Over 250,000 New Yorkers over age 12 are abusing prescription painkillers, he said, leading to rising hospital admissions for overdoses and deaths, Medicare fraud by doctors who write false prescriptions and violent crime like “holdups at neighborhood pharmacies.” According to the New York Times article

The big concern of New York residents is that because of this rule there won’t be enough painkillers for people who truly need it.  Bloomberg, on his weekly radio show with John Gambling, simply dismissed it by saying:

“Number one, there’s no evidence of that. Number two, supposing it is really true, so you didn’t get enough painkillers and you did have to suffer a little bit. The other side of the coin is people are dying and there’s nothing perfect … There’s nothing that you can possibly do where somebody isn’t going to suffer, and it’s always the same group [claiming], ‘Everybody is heartless.’ Come on, this is a very big problem.”

If you don’t have the answer or if you don’t want to deal with something that is a true and potential concern; you deflect.  Bloomberg did exactly that in his first sentence – there’s no real evidence of that.  Of course there is not; the plan is not into effect.  But logic tells you that if you restrict it arbitrarily you then will make it come up short – in which case you create a “black market” for painkillers.  Oh, wait!  There already is one because that’s the reason Bloomberg is implementing this plan.

The second part, in reality is the cruelest of all his statements.  Paraphrasing; Hey, people are always complaining about something, so if you hurt a bit just suck it up – it builds character (just like taking castor oil when I was a child would do; I guess they were right, I am a character!).

Bloomberg proves to me how out of touch with common sense and reality he is in his statement supporting his action:

“You see there’s a lot more hold-ups of pharmacies, people getting held up as they walk out of pharmacies,” he explained. “What are they all about? They’re not trying to steal your shaving cream or toothpaste at the point of a gun. They want these drugs.”

Prohibition in the 1920’s worked so well that we should try it again.  I think – following Bloomberg’s logic – that we should pass a new amendment to the Constitution banning the manufacture, import or use of painkillers in the United States of America.  If his argument is correct – which it is not – then the amendment would have remarkable results:  We could call it the Bloomberg-Pain Amendment.

Just when you think it just can’t get any worse – in terms of political aloofness – someone steps up and reminds you that just as you can’t foolproof a machine or a process because there’s always a new and improved fool, so it is with some politicians.

Be warned!  This is just a prelude to what we and our children are going to see from Obamacare.  We’ll have lines around Doctor’s offices and hospitals with signs that read “I want care”.  Sadly many won’t qualify for the painkillers or health treatment that could save their life.

In a way equality will have been achieved.  No matter how rich or how poor you are, how much you work or how little you work, all will be treated the same; and no one will get the care that they need.

Respectfully Submitted
The Lee’s Summit Conservative