THE IMPOSITION OF OBAMACARE/ROMNEYCARE
AND DEATH PANELS BY MYTH ROMNEY (GOPe)
Posted on 09/24/2014 4:27:53 AM PDT by moneyrunner
It all starts with a discussion of what you see as your personal preference. Then some reasons why it should be a general preference. Then it’s published as a thumb sucker in a publication read by movers and shakers. Denial, of course, that it’s a policy prescription designed for the general public. And heaven forbid that it should become government policy. But for Zeke Emanuel, famed atheist, and architect of ObamaCare, Soylent Green is not a dystopian movie but a really neat Final Solution to the financial problems of government funded health care. Death Panels will be known as SeniorCare brought to you by those lovable Liberals who are looking out for you.
Bud Norman has some further thoughts. (read the whole thing)
A recurring theme in the spate of dystopian futurist movies popular in our youth was that someday the government would start killing off all the old people. The notion provided a memorable scene in “Soylent Green” where Edward G. Robinson shuffled off to the local suicide center where the aged were treated to soothing music and images as they ceased to be a burden, and the entire plot of “Logan’s Run” was based on a society that maintained its perfectly organized order by offing anyone over the age of 30. In the late ’60s and early ’70s audiences found this plausible, with the younger and hipper movie-goers smugly assuming it was just the sort of thing that President Richard Nixon and his right-wing buddies would love to do, but it’s not been until the era of hope and change and the left-wing ascendancy that we’ve started to worry about it.
Our worries were heightened by the once-venerable Atlantic Monthly’s recent publication of an article by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel in which he expresses his desire to die at age 75 and urges the rest of us to do the same. This morbid advice would ordinarily be easy to ignore, but Emanuel is the brother of former Obama White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, has served as a special advisor to the Obama White House’s Office of Management and Budget, and is currently a fellow at the Obama White House-affiliated Center for American Progress.
THE IMPOSITION OF OBAMACARE/ROMNEYCARE
AND DEATH PANELS BY MYTH ROMNEY (GOPe)
I skimmed Ezekiel Emmanuels’s article and, at age 60, pretty much agree with his thinking. I’ll probably change my mind a bit if I get to 70 with no serious health issues. But, if I had severe Alzheimers deterioration or a profound stroke, I would not want anything other palliative medical care. I have experienced such with family members, and am fairly sure that my view wouldn’t change on that part anyway.
But what I think should not dictate the medical services available to others. This is a uniquely personal decision. Each individual should make his decisions in view of his own values (which include his own financial resources) and in consultation with his family members, his medical providers, and his religious counselors. (The use of “his” is intended, but it includes women as this singular possessive pronoun in its neuter form did before the English language changed in the 70s to accommodate feminist complaints. “Their” is a plural possessive pronoun, and is inappropriate here because the decision is so uniquely personal.)
I see nothing wrong with Emmanuel laying out the reasoning for his end of life decisions. However, no doubt about it, Emmanuel is arguing that this should be public policy. If the state is to assume the role of health care provider, such a public policy is inevitable. Bureaucrats must make decisions that are to be applied uniformly for all covered persons (with a few exceptions for the ruling elite, of course). By necessity, those decisions must reflect a veterinary model for health care of a herd rather than the old-fashioned model that was based on the patient’s choices.
A pronouncement like this guy made that people should die at 75 is very weird and not very informed. There is a percentage of people who live incredibly active, alert, independent lives into their 90s and are engaged in physical and social activities. They live independently and take care of their environment. The discussion should be about understanding how those who are so successful at aging got to where they are.
A productive discussion would be to determine which medications and surgeries do more harm than good after a certain age or level of activity. I could see that there might be some therapies and medications that are expensive and don't accomplish much, and insurance spends a lot of money on them. If people pay for them, fine. I just don't know how society will ever sort it out when people in positions of influencing policy want to off people at age 75.
Old men with deer rifles will begin eliminating the policy-makers. That'll sort it out.
“Old men with deer rifles will begin eliminating the policy-makers. That’ll sort it out.”.
Unfortunately, it may come to that.
Guess I need to go clean my rifles now...........
I’m not getting any younger...
I admit that I just skimmed Emmanuel’s article, but I gathered that he said he just wasn’t going to do anything to extend his life past 75. If he’s still kicking after that, he doesn’t plan to doing anything to end it. However, I imagine that, if he lives to 72, he’d still go to the dentist even though it would be unlikely that not doing so would cause any problems in a three-year time horizon.
There are a lot of taxpayer-funded drugs, surgeries and ER admissions that just prolong the lives elderly people suffering from profound dementia and stroke. All they accomplish is to keep the cardiovascular system working longer. They really accomplish no net good, but only postpone the inevitable.
so you are in favor of ending medical assistance to people on medicare if they have stroke. I just want to to make sure that I understand what the rules are if I’m on Medicare.
You understand that Romney did not win the election and want not responsible for Obama Care.
Poor sport spoiler Romney attacks Gov. Palin:
"Peeking Out From the McCain Wreckage: Mitt Romney"
"Someone's got to say it: IS MITT ROMNEY RESPONSIBLE FOR OBAMA'S VICTORY?"
"Vanity: Team Romney Sabotaged Palin and Continuing to Do So?"
“Old men with deer rifles will begin eliminating the policy-makers. That’ll sort it out.”
Won’t be long now I expect.
Yes, it is.
But when your uniquely personal decision involves the taxpayers coughing up their own money, which they could otherwise use to pay for THEIR personal decisions, then the people's representatives are going to get involved.
As they should.
How about we withhold medical care from people who no longer work so they no longer contribute to society. Or why pick 75? Let’s have this discussion about people at you age minus one. How old are you?
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