Posted on 09/25/2014 9:09:40 AM PDT by Kaslin
Normally, no one would care that in a recent Atlantic essay -- "Why I hope to die at 75"-- 57-year-old Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel argued that living to be 75 years old was long enough for anyone. After 75, Emanuel suggests, "We are no longer remembered as vibrant and engaged but as feeble, ineffectual, even pathetic.
But Emanuel is no garden-variety crackpot. Nor is he a wannabe science-fiction writer dreaming of a centrally planned planet of robust youthful humanoids. Unfortunately, he was one of the chief architects of the troubled Affordable Care Act and a key medical advisor to the Obama administration.
The ACA's conservative critics have long knocked Obamacare as a first step toward medical rationing. Read Emanuel's diatribe against living too long, and suddenly Sarah Palin's attack on Obamacare's "death panels" does not seem so far-fetched.
Emanuel's main point is that those who live beyond 75 inordinately gobble up collective health resources -- like flu shots. Emanuel asserts that at age 75 and beyond, he will decline nearly all medical tests and treatments. ("What about simple stuff? Flu shots are out.") He claims he won't take antibiotics either.
"I think this manic desperation to endlessly extend life is misguided and potentially destructive," Emanuel writes. "For many reasons, 75 is a pretty good age to aim to stop."
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Being one of the “feeble, ineffectual, even pathetic” folks over 75, I rather take umbrage at this characterization. Ezekiel Emanuel was a failure as a human being when he was 17, and he has not gained much momentum since then.
This is reflected in all sorts of subtle and not-so-subtle ways in the wording of the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010”. First, much of the funding was simply STOLEN from Medicare, and a vast part of the burden was shifted to Medicaid, which also negatively impacts an inordinate number of seniors. Not only are the funds taken away, the very things for which Medicare and Medicaid were set up to directly target, are also being put on a much restricted list. There are “death panels” written into the text, but they are not called by that name.
“Cost containment” is the name put on this practice, but it is essentially rationing, and it is age-based, on something called QARY (Quality-Adjusted Remaining Years). Older people have fewer “productive” years remaining, goes the reasoning, so they should “get out of the way”.
Obamacare can be summed up in three bullet points -
1. Pay more than you ever have in the past for medical services;
2. Don’t get sick, and;
3. If you do get sick, die quickly.
Death Panels
Cervantes was 58 when Don Quixote was published.
40 would have been considered a ripe old age.
What’s at stake:
Lower costs for Obama care if you die around the age of 75.
Enhanced tax revenue from the early levying of inheritance tax. This could be a substantial amount of revenue.
Except that if you know when they're going to cut off your medical care you stop planning to live much longer than that and adjust your finances and spending habits accordingly.
Most people will not adjust their expenses so that they run out at just the right time.
This is euthanasia.
George Soros - 84
Warren Buffett - 84
Ted Turner - 75
Redstone Sumner (CBS) - 91
Jimmy Carter - 89
All major Democrat contributors ... well maybe except for the last (grin)
Dianne Feinstein (81 years)
Carl Levin (80)
Barbara Mikulski (78)
Jay Rockefeller (77)
Tom Harkin reaches the Optimal Age of Death in just 56 days, and the Big Dingy, Harry Reid, hits the big OAOD in 68 days.
nuff said
My dad died at 90 years old. He was vibrant and engaged right up to the end. Feeble? He was still physically stronger than many younger men and he was neither ineffectual or pathetic. The Emmanuel brothers are evil and there is no other word for them.
What do you base that on? I think we're talking about a situation that we don't really have any precedent or past experience with.
I think watching friends and family members die of calculated neglect by government bureaucrats, and then have the government come in and take their savings they could have enjoyed while they were alive would certainly make me think about my own situation.
You have always been a waste of O2, Dr. Emanuel.
ha ha ha GOOD ONE! Well my mom is almost 90 and still going strong. Her second husband just celebrated his 90th. My uncle was 90 before he had any health problem, smoked two packs a day, finally developed one tiny spot of cancer on his lung. He refused treatment and died at about 90. My aunt was 90 and healthy as a horse, with 20-20 vision. Then she started slowing down and died at 91. There were no big medical bills or treatments for her, just a blood pressure pill once a day, and they are not expensive.
I think too much medical expen$e is going to gangsters, guys in prison, rioters, gang bangers, who have knife wounds, gunshot wounds, etc.
And daredevils. They are young. They keep getting injured. Their medical bills are sky high. Like Dario Franchiti. He broke his neck, back, ankle, etc in a Grand Prix car race in Houston. And he is racing again. His medical bills for that ONE accident are more than mine have been for my whole life, I am 63.
We have saved up for our retirement and old age. WE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO LIVE AND ENJOY IT! My medical bills are almost Zero
Too bad his mom didn’t abort him. ....and I am TOTALLY AGAINST ABORTION! but in his case, I make an exception! LOL
Oh I LOVE Leonard Cohen! Just heard a guitar concert and the guitarist (Shawn Hopper) only sings on one song...
Bird on a Wire.... written by Leonard Cohen!
If Shawn Hopper ever comes to your town, go to his concert! Great talent!
A friend of mine is way over 75 and he and his wife just got back from a trip to Italy. Earlier this year they went to Alaska with a church group to do some work for free up there, some kind of construction. I often see them at the gym. They are more active than a lot of kids who sit and play video games all day!
My father in law was a youthful 85. He mowed his lawn, watered it with heavy hoses, drove to Littleton Co from GOlden, had dinner with our cousins, drove home. He was fine but somehow he fell and hit his head and never woke up. He was vibrant and active as most 30 year olds.
He still shoveled his STEEP driveway. We tried but that snow was so heavy. We were 30 years younger than he was and we couldn’t shovel the snow, he could. One time he fell and slid down that driveway, and only stopped when he got to the middle of the street. Didn’t get hurt.
My aunt who died at 91 was standing on a kitchen chair, fell, all the way to the floor, BAM! Didn’t break anything. I come from sturdy stock.
“Did you mean Emmanuel instead of Hanson?”
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Yep, my error. Rushing a bit. Thanks.
I just looked up articles about Leonard Cohen’s new album. He is 80. One of his new songs is EXCUSE ME FOR NOT DYING!
I am 63 and I very much already feel Old and in the Way.
So please also excue me for not dying. I love his song Like a Bird on a Wire. Like a drunk in a midnight choir. I have burned everyone who reached out to me.
In 1900 ripe old age was 47.
I remember when I was a kid in Oklahoma in the 50s and 60s a neighbor was 30 and PG for the first time! She was considered too old and she was so grumpy! LOL Now a lot of people wait till 30 to have a baby! I was 30 when I had our first child!
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