Free Republic

First, the bad news. For the first time since 1975, Social Security recipients are being told they won't be receiving an annual cost of living increase in their monthly benefits. At the same time, their Medicare premiums will go up, so monthly checks will actually shrink next year. Not to worry, though. Here's the good news. Seniors may not have to live on such meager funds for long because the government is going to help them plan how they want to die. This benevolent plan is in Section 1233 (p. 424) of the health care reform bill known as "America's...

Once again we're presented with evidence that the health-care debate is occurring without adequate attention being paid to the record of established nationalized health-care systems overseas. This has arisen as a result of Sarah Palin's superb maneuver in forcing the administration to drop Section 1233 of the ObamaCare act, entitled "Advance Care Planning Consultation." Section 1233, which we might as well call the "Let's Wrap it Up" clause, calls for "planning sessions" for Medicare clients in which the "continuum of end-of-life services and supports available" would be explained in detail. This "continuum" includes "palliative and hospice care", but is unlikely...

Section 1233 would have Medicare pay doctors to counsel seniors on "end-of-life" matters once every five years - or more if the patient's health is dicey. Obama's supporters have forwarded to me links to Politifact.org and FactCheck.org, which have examined Section 1233 [of HR 3200], and conclude nothing sinister is in the bill. Several facts are missing, however. The man who wrote Section 1233, Congressman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., advocates euthanasia or, as he calls it on his Web site, "Death with Dignity." In 2005, as the Bush administration challenged Oregon's "Death with Dignity" law, Blumenauer issued a statement criticizing the...

Democratic politicians and the MSM consider it a given that concerns about the "end-of-life counseling" provision in Section 1233 of a House-drafted version of health care legislation are but the unfounded product of right-wing fear mongering. But Charles Lane of the Washington Post, certainly no right-winger, has taken a careful look at Section 1233 and finds that he too is concerned. Lane argues that the "consultations" provided for in Section 1233, while not mandatory, are not "purely voluntary" either as the Democrats have claimed. Thus, he writes "Section 1233 lets doctors initiate the chat and gives them an incentive --...