Comment Re:*sigh* (Score 1) 320
But are they making these decisions for YOU, or for a class of people your age/etc? From what I've seen these panels will choose a level of support that will be provided, instead of promising support (like an HMO) and then removing it later based on technicalities in your paperwork or circumstances.
While that does leave it open to a GWB changing it all at least he should have a hard time targeting anyone specifically. He'd just deny all care by throwing you into Guantanamo, HMO or otherwise.
I think government spending like this should be outsourced, even the administration of it, but not with long-term contracts. Whenever we reward a long-term contract or sell a public resource the company that gets it immediately becomes a cesspool of inefficiency (as if they know the easy money will never dry up) and does a crappy job at what they were hired to do. If they had to keep winning the customer-satisfaction survey or the other businesses in the field would get their slice of the market they'd stay (more) responsive.