Earlier this week, Representative Leah Cushman introduced HB 1010 “relative to expanding maternity options and midwifery access.” Fortunately, representatives of the “we know what’s best for you” crowd were there to explain why patient choice is a very, very bad thing.
Here’s a choice snippet from the testimony of Dr. Cathy Chung Hwa Yi, an OBGYN based in Concord, NH:
This bill allows patients or consumers to decide what is the best option for them. In my opinion, I think the government and the regulatory board and the licensure committees exist to protect the public and allow the lay public to make good decisions. By allowing the public to decide now to where to choose care, I think it endangers the consumer. …
So my position is that this bill poses the choice of seeking care to the lay public and I think the government and its agencies should exist to protect the public from making good choices and good options, and by deregulating or allowing the patients to have more choice in this particular situation it is reckless endangerment, I guess, of the public.
