Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

July 14, 2010

Obamacare has yet to go into effect, yet as Wayne Hoffman of the Idaho Freedom Foundation notes, the government is already forcing doctors to ?treat patients according to the government?s terms and conditions. If they protest, argue, complain, fight or plead, they will be pegged as part of a grand conspiracy and silenced.?

Orthopedic surgeons in Boise rebelled against government ?established reimbursement rates .Exercising their right to assemble peacefully in order to seek redress of their grievances, the doctors communicated with each other to complain and organize. Scores of doctors announced they wouldn?t continue offering treatment under the reduced reimbursement schedule. Many of them reversed that decision once the rates were increased.

This refusal to accept government price controls was treated by the federal government ? and the Idaho state government ? as a criminal ?price-fixing conspiracy.? The physicians were forced to accept a settlement that, among other things, would make it a criminal offense for a doctor to complain about price controls to his professional peers.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.