She needs our help! If you agree with her, and want to make a difference, click the pic for SarahPac- 
Posted on 08/13/2009 6:05:51 AM PDT by Clyde5445
Yesterday President Obama responded to my statement that Democratic health care proposals would lead to rationed care; that the sick, the elderly, and the disabled would suffer the most under such rationing; and that under such a system these “unproductive” members of society could face the prospect of government bureaucrats determining whether they deserve health care.
The President made light of these concerns. He said:
“Let me just be specific about some things that I’ve been hearing lately that we just need to dispose of here. The rumor that’s been circulating a lot lately is this idea that somehow the House of Representatives voted for death panels that will basically pull the plug on grandma because we’ve decided that we don’t, it’s too expensive to let her live anymore....It turns out that I guess this arose out of a provision in one of the House bills that allowed Medicare to reimburse people for consultations about end-of-life care, setting up living wills, the availability of hospice, etc. So the intention of the members of Congress was to give people more information so that they could handle issues of end-of-life care when they’re ready on their own terms. It wasn’t forcing anybody to do anything.” [1]
The provision that President Obama refers to is Section 1233 of HR 3200, entitled “Advance Care Planning Consultation.” [2] With all due respect, it’s misleading for the President to describe this section as an entirely voluntary provision that simply increases the information offered to Medicare recipients. The issue is the context in which that information is provided and the coercive effect these consultations will have in that context.
Section 1233 authorizes advanced care planning consultations for senior citizens on Medicare every five years, and more often “if there is a significant change in the health condition of the individual ... or upon admission to a skilled nursing facility, a long-term care facility... or a hospice program." [3] During those consultations, practitioners must explain “the continuum of end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice,” and the government benefits available to pay for such services. [4]
Now put this in context. These consultations are authorized whenever a Medicare recipient’s health changes significantly or when they enter a nursing home, and they are part of a bill whose stated purpose is “to reduce the growth in health care spending.” [5] Is it any wonder that senior citizens might view such consultations as attempts to convince them to help reduce health care costs by accepting minimal end-of-life care? As Charles Lane notes in the Washington Post, Section 1233 “addresses compassionate goals in disconcerting proximity to fiscal ones.... If it’s all about alleviating suffering, emotional or physical, what’s it doing in a measure to “bend the curve” on health-care costs?” [6]
As Lane also points out:
Though not mandatory, as some on the right have claimed, the consultations envisioned in Section 1233 aren’t quite “purely voluntary,” as Rep. Sander M. Levin (D-Mich.) asserts. To me, “purely voluntary” means “not unless the patient requests one.” Section 1233, however, lets doctors initiate the chat and gives them an incentive -- money -- to do so. Indeed, that’s an incentive to insist.
Patients may refuse without penalty, but many will bow to white-coated authority. Once they’re in the meeting, the bill does permit “formulation” of a plug-pulling order right then and there. So when Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) denies that Section 1233 would “place senior citizens in situations where they feel pressured to sign end-of-life directives that they would not otherwise sign,” I don’t think he’s being realistic. [7]
Even columnist Eugene Robinson, a self-described “true believer” who “will almost certainly support” “whatever reform package finally emerges”, agrees that “If the government says it has to control health-care costs and then offers to pay doctors to give advice about hospice care, citizens are not delusional to conclude that the goal is to reduce end-of-life spending.” [8]
So are these usually friendly pundits wrong? Is this all just a “rumor” to be “disposed of”, as President Obama says? Not according to Democratic New York State Senator Ruben Diaz, Chairman of the New York State Senate Aging Committee, who writes:
Section 1233 of House Resolution 3200 puts our senior citizens on a slippery slope and may diminish respect for the inherent dignity of each of their lives.... It is egregious to consider that any senior citizen ... should be placed in a situation where he or she would feel pressured to save the government money by dying a little sooner than he or she otherwise would, be required to be counseled about the supposed benefits of killing oneself, or be encouraged to sign any end of life directives that they would not otherwise sign. [9]
Of course, it’s not just this one provision that presents a problem. My original comments concerned statements made by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a health policy advisor to President Obama and the brother of the President’s chief of staff. Dr. Emanuel has written that some medical services should not be guaranteed to those “who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens....An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia.” [10] Dr. Emanuel has also advocated basing medical decisions on a system which “produces a priority curve on which individuals aged between roughly 15 and 40 years get the most chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get chances that are attenuated.” [11]
President Obama can try to gloss over the effects of government authorized end-of-life consultations, but the views of one of his top health care advisors are clear enough. It’s all just more evidence that the Democratic legislative proposals will lead to health care rationing, and more evidence that the top-down plans of government bureaucrats will never result in real health care reform.
[1] See http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/08/president-obama-addresses-sarah-palin-death-panels-wild-representations.html. [2] See http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/AAHCA-BillText-071409.pdf [3] See HR 3200 sec. 1233 (hhh)(1); Sec. 1233 (hhh)(3)(B)(1), above. [4] See HR 3200 sec. 1233 (hhh)(1)(E), above. [5] See http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/AAHCA-BillText-071409.pdf [6] See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/07/AR2009080703043.html]. [7] Id. [8] See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/10/AR2009081002455.html]. [9] See http://www.nysenate.gov/press-release/letter-congressman-henry-waxman-re-section-1233-hr-3200. [10] See http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/Where_Civic_Republicanism_and_Deliberative_Democracy_Meet.pdf [11] See http://www.scribd.com/doc/18280675/Principles-for-Allocation-of-Scarce-Medical-Interventions.
This is the whole statement.
I didn’t want you to miss this!
Looks like Candidate Palin is upping her game...
(If the mushy middle is paying attention.)
The pen is mightier than the teleprompter.
One does not have to dig deep in the Democratic cult to find this explicitly stated. One of the LaRaza loudmouths at a LaRaza health care reform confab in DC explicitly stated that elderly whites needed to be denied health care for the benefit of hispanics. The intent is there.
Barack has misunderestimated once again the ferocity that drives much of America, and is focused most keenly in the person of Sarah Palin.
With a relative economy of words, she continues to burst the pleasant little soap bubbles and wafts away smoke that Resident (Pres_ent) Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., or Barry Soetoro, or Mr Michelle Robinson, or Sock-Puppet, supposedly the son of an out-of-control teenager and a Kenyan exchange student, keeps blowing our way.
If the local contingent of ACORN and their allies in Alaska had just laid off on their attacks, she would be still safely enscounced in the Governor’s chair in Alaska, tending to affairs of the State. But no, they had to keep poking a stick into the barracuda’s face, now they are subject to the consequences.
Representative Diaz doesn’t seem to be taking that position — judging by the quote in the article.
As usual, Sarah Barracuda nails it.
Was he talking about healthcare for the illegals that pour across our border every year?
Hmmm...so a clear, sobering view and explanation from Governor Palin.
From the Pwesident...platitudes.
Mr Pwesident, in the neighbor”hood”, we call this a b*tchslap.
Could this be moved to breaking news, please? This is NOT a mere post by somebody looking to pimp their blog.
Thanks that is why I posted the direct source. I was thinking it would get more attn. that way. This piece needs to get out.
I like this post. But I think Gov. Palin pulled back on a couple of punches. She could have referenced Sec. 1177 which allows for limiting care to Special Needs patients and Sec. 1162 which defines “outcome-based measures” and can be used as justification for witholding treatment from the elderly.
Planned Parenthood also gives advice to expectant mothers under the same guise (the high-and-mighty-sounding “provide more information).
Guess what that advice is.
She needs our help! If you agree with her, and want to make a difference, click the pic for SarahPac-
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