EZEKIEL EMANUEL AND OBAMA HEALTH CARE
(Must Read - Shocking, cited quotes by Emanuel)
OBAMA HEALTH CARE BY THE NUMBERS
Posted on 08/22/2009 5:54:54 PM PDT by Antioch
Although President Obama and liberal Congressional Democrats have denounced claims that the health care reform establishes "death panels," it does not help reassure the American public that the nation's foremost pro-euthanasia group is actively pushing "end-of-life counseling" as a centerpiece of health-care reforms.
Compassion & Choices, a rebranding of the former Hemlock Society, aggressively lobbies to legalize euthanasia as a "human right" by means of legislation and the judicial system. But the group has revealed that it is a major player behind incorporating a measure (sec. 1233) of the "American Affordable Choices Act of 2009" (HR 3200) that would pay doctors and medical professionals to offer "end-of-life" consultations every five years with elderly patients or those suffering from chronic or terminal illnesses.
"As Congress debates health insurance reform, Compassion & Choices is leading the charge to make end-of-life choice a centerpiece of any program that emerges," the euthanasia society declares on its website. "We are working hard to reach our goal to make end-of-life choice a centerpiece of national health insurance reform."
An e-mail alert sent by the organization's president Barbara Lee Coombs asked members to join in a telephone call-in with President Obama and faith-based groups asking them to "please encourage him to be vocal and steadfast in his support of the voluntary end-of-life consultation provision for Medicare patients" if they had the opportunity to ask the President a question.
"Compassion & Choices was the number one organization behind pushing for assisted suicide in Washington State. They've made no secret that this is something they would like to replicate on a national scale," said Dan Kennedy, CEO of Human Life Washington in an e-mail to LifeSiteNews.com.
Since Oregon passed laws legalizing physician assisted suicide in 1997, two other states have also legalized assisted suicide: Washington and Montana through the efforts of Compassion & Choices. In Montana, the euthanasia-promoting group had assisted suicide foisted on the state through the edict of a district court; however Montana physicians and the Montana Medical Association refused to participate, saying killing their patients violated physician ethics rooted in the Hippocratic Oath.
Although the White House and its allies in Congress have insisted that talk about sec. 1233 of HR 3200 would lead to "death panels" - a term coined by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to frame how involving government bureaucracy in health care would lead to low-quality care or denied care - has no foundation in fact; but the reality is that euthanasia advocate Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) had a powerful impact upon shaping the legislation, which Compassion & Choices has aggressively promoted.
"I'm certain that they see themselves as the go-to community organization that would partner with the Federal government in end of life counseling," said Kennedy. "Given that the President has made some disturbing statements on end of life economics, and has listened to their input on health care legislation, we can't pretend we don't know what the end-game is."
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an advocate of Oregon's assisted suicide law, wrote the "Life Sustaining Treatment Preferences Act of 2009" (HR 1898), which is considered the primary source of the "advance care planning" sec. 1233 of the health-care reform bill, HR 3200. Both bills incorporate what the euthanasia-promoting Compassion & Choices calls a "Physician Order for Life Sustaining Treatment" (POLST) and pay physicians to initiate conversations with their patients about "the reasons why the development of such an order is beneficial to the individual and the individual's family and the reasons why such an order should be updated periodically as the health of the individual changes."
Such advance orders not only include the establishment of living wills, and health-care proxies, but they also delineate for medical professionals under what conditions a patient would wish to refuse treatment, including cardiac or pulmonary resuscitation, going to the hospital, using anti-biotics, and even when to continue "the use of artificially administered nutrition and hydration."
A number of analysts, and not all conservative, have expressed concern that sec. 1233 could lead to senior citizens being pressured into accepting lower quality care from a doctor who is reimbursed to talk with a patient about refusing treatment.
In fact Obama himself has emphasized cutting medical costs through end-of-life counseling. In an April New York Times interview, Obama mentioned how the "chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here." Obama stated that the nation must have "a very difficult democratic conversation" about dealing with those costs and advocated the creation of "some independent group that can give you guidance" on the matter.
Such an independent group under HR 3200 would be a board for "Comparative Effectiveness Research" established under the executive branch, and independent of Congressional oversight. But the White House is pushing for the creation of an Independent Medical Advisory Committee, also under the sole direction of the President, that would have the power to completely rewrite Medicare reimbursements without input from Congress.
According to a new NBC News poll, Americans have become increasingly alarmed about the proposed government involvement in the health-care of their loved ones. About 45 percent believe that the government will likely decide when to stop care for the elderly, while 50 percent say it is not likely. 54 percent of respondents also believe the government reforms will lead to a government takeover of health care, while 39 percent disagree.
However, Americans could have a greater cause for alarm to know that not only are euthanasia groups promoting this aspect of health-care reform, but that the Obama Administration has already included them as a resource for "end-of-life counseling" in its Veterans Affairs Department.
Obama 2008 - Hope & Change
USA 2009 - FUBAR
Thanks. I’ve been arguing in another forum that there were, in fact, death panels in the bill as put forward, and that Sarah Palin was absolutely right and effective in what she said.
I’m saving this one for possible later use, since I already seem to have won the argument several times over, but if they come back at me, I’ll use this one.
Let me guess...she’s an atheist. /s
I don’t want this ‘nurse/physician assistant/lawyer’ anywhere near any of my family!
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Oxt74deJTGI/SbSTK-RqybI/AAAAAAAAAWI/GuLW_E1GqDE/s320/coombs_lee.jpg
Barbara Coombs Lee, PA, FNP, JD, (born 1947) is an American activist and president of Compassion & Choices, a national non-profit organization dedicated to expanding and protecting the rights of the terminally ill. She practiced as a nurse and physician assistant for 25 years before becoming an attorney and devoting her professional life to individual choice and empowerment in health care. During two statewide campaigns she served as Chief Petitioner of the Oregon Death with Dignity Act.
******
Testimony Before The
U.S. House Subcommittee
On The Constitution Concerning
The Legality Of Assisted Suicide
by Barbara Coombs Lee
Chief Petitioner For Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act
During our campaign we argued that physicians already assist their patients with death in hidden and unstated ways. The initiative would merely bring covert, surreptitious activity into the open and add safeguards. Recent scientific evidence confirms this belief.
When we know that certain rare and desperate cases call for a compassionate response in the form of assisted death our democratic heritage demands that the law be consistent with that knowledge. Perhaps this is uniquely American, but it how we govern with integrity retain the consent of the governed.
******
DEATH - The “Sugar” of Life
by Barbara Coombs Lee
“As Epicurus observed many centuries ago, the art of living well and dying well are one.”
Barbara Coombs Lee is President of Compassion in Dying Federation
******
New HHS “Conscience” Rule Jeopardizes End-of-Life Pain Care
Barbara Coombs Lee
Under the guise of protecting those with strong religious and moral convictions from workplace “discrimination”, the rule encourages zealous, sanctimonious healthcare workers to act out their convictions at the expense of the patients they are supposed to serve.
Most commentary on this rule focuses on impending damage to reproductive services and access to abortion and contraception. But at Compassion & Choices, our concerns center on end-of-life care, especially the palliative care measures that rescue patients from unbearable agony. This ill-conceived rule will surely obstruct and delay good care in many instances, increasing the suffering of dying patients and their loved ones.
The pertinent section, 88.4 d 2, bars health care institutions and employers from requiring “...any individual to perform or assist in the performance of any part of a health service program...” if it would offend his or her religious beliefs or moral convictions. Health care workers cannot be fired or disciplined for refusing to do their job based on their beliefs. Absolute job protection extends to physicians, nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, IV technicians -— apparently even cleaning and maintenance staff.
Compassion & Choices submitted a letter stating its concerns during the mandatory comment period. The comments went unheeded and the final rule stands virtually unchanged from the one proposed.
Anyone who works in end-of-life care or health care policy, and anyone who has cared for a loved one during the final stages of terminal illness, knows we already have a problem, even without this rule. Too much pain and suffering goes untreated or under-treated and too many people die in agony. The Compassion & Choices legal team has helped raise the standard of care by sponsoring helpful bills and successfully challenging under-treated pain as a form of elder abuse, but the need for improvement remains great.
Now comes a federal rule encouraging workers to exercise their idiosyncratic convictions at the expense of patient care. Employees who, for example, might exalt suffering, or disapprove of discontinuing feeding tubes or respiratory support have license under this rule to refuse to deliver or support any treatment or procedure. They can do this without prior notice or the courtesy of providing substitute staff. End-of-life suffering often presents as a medical emergency. Precipitous refusal could leave patients in agonizing pain or gasping for air while others scramble to fill the refuser’s duties.
But the most wretched excuse for under-treating pain and other agonies comes from pious, sanctimonious zealots.
This particular conviction finds support in the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Healthcare, (ERDs) which guide the behavior of every Catholic institution and healthcare worker.
Pious believers stress conscious mental preparedness for death and are reluctant to cause unconsciousness unless they deem it absolutely necessary.
It dismays us to know policies, laws and education efforts could fall victim to healthcare workers encouraged to impose their personal religious convictions on dying patients in every state.
Revocation of this rule should be high on the Obama administration’s immediate agenda. If procedural requirements slow the revocation process, Congress should act immediately to prevent the rule from taking effect. Decency and mercy demand swift action.
http://www.deathwithdignity.org/media/images/oldimages/barbaracoombslee.jpg
Former Washington Governor Booth Gardner shares a victory dance with I-1000 Campaign volunteer Nancy Niedzielski at election night party in Seattle, Wa.
Robb Miller, Executive Director of Compassion & Choices of Washington, and Barbara Coombs Lee, President of Compassion & Choices National, at election night victory party.
What a whack job.
The Court on Physician Aid-in-Dying
By Barbara Coombs Lee | January 20, 2006
is associated with “Center for American Progress”
Founded in 2003, CAP is headed by John D. Podesta, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.
“As we honor the 33rd anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, we take time to consider the current climate in which the struggle for reproductive determination continues and visions for moving forward. At a time when the ideological composition of the Supreme Court is shifting, when many important cases continue to come before the Court, and when critical constitutional questions remain unanswered, these columns mark Roe as the beginning, rather than the end, of the battle for women’s health and rights.”
Barbara Coombs Lee
Oh, please. No wonder people don't trust them, with names like this.
You don't even need to read the bill to know you're being set up.
COOMBS, BARBARA J. MRS.
SOUTH HARWICH, MA
02661 RETIRED/RETIRED $250
08/22/2008
P JOHN MCCAIN 2008 INC. - Republican
Obama's first act in office was to expand funding of abortion and global population control with U.S. tax dollars. Their main agenda is population control. The whole purpose of the secret societies and power cabals who put Obama in there as their puppet is to promote depopulation. So they are lying when they try to tell people they were not planning death panels. We've already had a national Death Panel in the U.S. when they voted to let Terri Schiavo be killed. Obama himself voted on a death panel to deny medical treatment to babies born alive in botched abortions. So when he giggles and laughs about death panels, keep that in mind.
End of Life Choices
Barbara Coombs Lee, Professor at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Preventative Medicine and the President of Compassion in Dying Federation, was joined by Stanford Law Professor Hank Greely to outline the issues posed by physician-assisted suicide and other death-with-dignity initiatives. (Spring, 2007)
“Old people have a duty to die and get out of the way.”
“The primary opposition is the right-to-life wing of the Catholic Church,” said Anne Martens, spokeswoman for Yes on 1000, which had raised $3.3 million as of Friday — more than half from out-of-state contributors and more than $600,000 from former Gov. Booth Gardner and his extended family.
That perception of I-1000 foes has fostered “full-frontal, anti-Catholic bigotry,” even though opponents hold a range of religious beliefs or none at all, said Eileen Geller, campaign coordinator for the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide.
For the Washington State Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s Catholic bishops, the matter is clear: I-1000 runs contrary to Christian belief that life is sacred and that God alone holds sovereignty over it.
“Instead of seeking ways to end lives,” the group stated, “we should strive, as compassionate people, to seek life-giving ways to care for dying persons among us.”
John Rutter, a member of the Edmonds Unitarian Universalist Church, said supporting I-1000 is in line with his personal values and his church’s teaching.
Unitarians search for “their own version of truth in life and relationship to the universe, to whatever god you decide fits your value system,” he said, and seek to leave the world a better place and to control their destiny, including death.
“Faith or no faith, anyone could see that vulnerable people who discover they have a terminal illness are going to be negatively affected,” said Camille Pauley, co-founder and president of Healing the Culture, a nonprofit educational organization in Kenmore.
She said the initiative does not require that families be notified when people seek to end their lives. It also doesn’t require that a mental health evaluation be done, “even though depression is almost always associated with a diagnosis of terminal illness,” she said.
The Washington State Medical Association opposes I-1000, stating that “physician assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the role of physicians as healers.” The association also says that recent advances in palliative medicine provide doctor and patients with the ability to control pain and other end-of-life symptoms.
“I think health care in general improved when patients are informed and empowered,” said Barbara Coombs Lee, president of Compassion & Choices, a national “choice-in-dying” organization with a headquarters in Portland.
She called the law “an insurance policy” against a painful death.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/383018_suicidefaith13.html
I work in end of life care and I understand we indeed have a problem: chiefly not enough people get into hospice. It's simply unwarranted what this woman stands for. Too many people do die in agony but euthanasia isn't the answer, hospice is.
As a hospice volunteer I totally agree with you.
I’d be curious to know where all the proponents of this travesty got their medical degrees. That includes the current administration.
I’ve wondered who wrote this obamanation. The congress hasn’t read it, so obviously they didn’t write it. So who did? 1000+ pages of complicated crap pops up overnight - somebody must have had it ready to go all along - who is that somebody?
Glen Beck had an excellent show yesterday where he did some digging as to who’s behind this. He uncovered a group called Apollo Alliance run by an admitted commie named Van Jones - who’s now the “green jobs” czar in the administration. Apollo Alliance is composed of “community agitators” like ACORN, environuts groups (Green Peace, etc) and all the Labor Unions.
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