This is not compassionate conservatism.

Obama’s health care reforms would provide quick and inexpensive treatment to productive people, and would ration and delay treatment to the elderly and to those less likely to be productive workers. In Britain there is even an age limit to certain treatments. Beyond a certain age for that problem: no treatment.

Obama’s health care proposals would keep health care available and affordable for productive people who have problems that can be treated at low cost. For people who need more expensive health care, or whose most productive years are behind them, availability will be rationed. Looked at from the standpoint of the economy, this would keep productive people productive and would reduce the burden of unproductive people.

My own mother is a case in point. Ten years ago, into her 70s, she came down with melanoma. She had five surgeries plus chemotherapy in a span of four tough years, and remarkably (because melanoma can be very persistent), she’s now been cancer-free for more than five years. Now into her 80s she remains active, plays golf a few times a week, enjoys bridge games with her friends, and is active in her church. Since her bout with melanoma she’s traveled throughout Europe and been to China twice. Thanks to the good medical care she received from the doctors at Johns Hopkins (I’ll give them full credit; they saved my mother’s life), she’s had some very good years. That’s been nice for her, and for me and the rest of our family. If she’d gotten melanoma 50 years ago, or even today in Canada or Britain, she likely would have died a decade ago.

What’s good for my mother isn’t necessarily good for you, or for the nation’s economy. Her health care is paid for by Medicare, and she’s been collecting Social Security the whole time too. If she had died, all those expenses would have been saved. That’s where we’re headed with Obamacare. If you’re productive and your health care needs are modest, we’ll take care of you so you can get back to work. If you’re not productive and you need expensive care, we’ll ration it, which for many people will be fatal. But most of the fatalities will be among the elderly and infirm who are collecting Social Security and Medicare, and are a financial burden on the rest of us. With Obamacare, we are designing a national policy to reduce that burden.

Serves them right for getting old and/or sick. When they are Old and in The Way, Too Old To Cut the Mustard, and disinclined to perform more traditional senior jobs like child care and education (for children of all ages including those who may be physically but not mentally mature) then just compost them. I suppose that gimps of all varieties will be in decline as well. No more handicap access rules and regulations? This is progress?