I got a copy of this email sent out by Congressman Pomeroy’s office this morning (no, I’m not on the mailing list) to someone I know, detailing a problem he has with Medicare funding and its impact on rural medicine. Apparently a new requirement of having routine therapeutic services performed by a nurse or other professional will only be reimbursed if “a doctor or mid-level practitioner is physically present,” instead of within 30 minutes of the hospital. Obviously this is not good for the practice of rural medicine in many cases.

Congressman Pomeroy makes a good point. I won’t disagree with him on that. There is, however, an even stronger point brought up by this last paragraph in his email:

I have been in touch with CMS and the Administration to make clear that this new rule is not acceptable, and I’m going to keep pushing them to resolve this issue. This policy might be just fine for hospitals in New York City and other urban centers, but here in North Dakota, this cookie-cutter approach is exactly the wrong way to go about it.

I think many North Dakotans would agree with you, Congressman. Why is it, then, if something so relatively small as a reimbursement requirement for therapeutic services is so unacceptable and worthy of a fight, do you want to support your party’s unwanted, unconstitutional “cookie-cutter” approach to nationalizing health care entirely?

Congressman Pomeroy has been dutifully following his political party’s lead and voting at Nancy Pelosi’s behest to force a “cookie-cutter approach” to the federal government’s takeover of the nation’s health care system. Doing so would force North Dakota to abide by the same bureaucratic nightmare as “New York City and other urban centers,” and that’s justifiable to Congressman Pomeroy? Does he actually think rural North Dakota would have any influence in such a system or how it’s designed?

But now he’s going to act all indignant and promise to fight because of a reimbursement criteria that does the same? This relatively insignificant issue will become irrelevant if he keeps voting for the federal government’s takeover of the entire healthcare system!

This is just one more example of the fact that, for liberal Democrats, “health care reform” is not about health care, health care funding, health insurance, or health coverage. It is about power. It is about pushing this country so far into European style socialism, even at the expense of a number of political careers, that it will be impossible to bring it back. For them, the health care system is simply a tool, the blunt instrument by which they will bludgeon this country into irreversible mediocrity and bureaucratically induced suffering. How do you think that affects North Dakotans, Congressman Pomeroy?