TSA and "Death Panels," What They Have in Common

 In a recent CNN interview, Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, inferred that the "pat downs" are not going away soon, and "we better get used to them." We have definitely moved into a new phase in the security business, and I think we need to speculate on the potential effects on basic American culture. Sure, we need more security because it's getting more dangerous to fly with the terrorists making more and different bombs, but I would like to take this problem one step further. In order to reach this level of security, we are having to submit ourselves to invasive personal scrutiny at multiple levels. I must admit, I feel safer when they probe everyone, but I don't like it when it's done to me.

In a sense, they are forcing us to be "dehumanized." We are being forced to become digits, and that is the antithesis of the American way. Americans are supposed to be rugged individualists. We believe in the rights of the individual. Those rights are "endowed by our creator" and therefore can't be taken away. Isn't that what unalienable means?  Americans aren't meant to wait in line, and shut up!  The value of our personal autonomy is rooted deeply in American culture. Unfortunately, that's not what I see in our future, and I worry about changes in that culture.

Being dehumanized, and treated like a number is where we are certainly headed, and the TSA is child's play compared to what lies ahead. Not many columnists are writing about it, but health care is going to be the real changer. Right now we have "patient autonomy" and "patient rights" that pretty much allows each of us to demand all the treatment we can get. That is going to change in the future. No, I'm not talking about "death panels," because there is no such thing.  What I am talking about is the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality.

This agency was funded under H.R. 1 the Recovery and Reinvestment Act: the Stimulus Bill. It gave $1.1 billion dollars to begin this work. It consists of 15 individuals who are highly qualified with PhD, M.D., J.D., M.P.H. and RN degrees (many multiple degrees), who are going to use research to decide what can or will be done if it is efficient and "cost effective."

The genesis of this idea is contained in Tom Daschle's 2008 book, Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis.  Among his major ideas was to create an "independent" board which can "exert tremendous influence on every other provider and payer, even those in the private sector." That, I believe, is the intention of this agency. It is going to make determinations about what is "reasonable" and what is "effective" and probably "not too costly."

Now don't misunderstand me. We need something like this. We spend millions on useless procedures and treatments, because, as Americans, we have a right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The tide is turning, and our individual pursuit of life is interfering with others pursuit of happiness because it costs too much. Changing this misappropriation of funds is now a priority.

The connection with TSA is that we will most likely reach a point in our aging that we will be made to feel like a digit. Only this time it will be more a question of life and death. The old thought of American individual rights will be trumped by the welfare of others because they can't afford to pay for our pursuit of life at any price. I hate to say it, but it just seems reasonable.

What concerns me beyond this interference with our medical care freedoms, is will this infringement on our personal autonomy begin to change our views of the "rugged individual American." We just can't have everything, and will we stop striving for "everything" the way we are supposed to as we work towards the elusive "American Dream." I worry that training us to wait in line to be searched, and wait in line for medical care that someone "in charge" might say we are not worthy of, will stifle  our American Spirit and respect for individual rights. If that occurs it is more serious than any conceivable death panel might be.