Did Obama Say We Should Kill the Old Folks to Save Money Last Night?

Publius' Forum ^ | 6/25/09 | Warner Todd Huston

[Mobile Vulgus]

I am wondering when the euthanasia folks are going to start touting this one? I mean, it sure seemed to me as if the most caring, most civil, most intelligent president evah just said that healthcare could be cheaper if we don't give old folks and the infirm the full measure of care they now get. It appeared that Obama said we should just let them die or suffer because they aren't worth the effort. Imagine if Bush had said something like this? The left wouldn't have hesitated to call him any manner of names.

Obama said during the ABC Special on Wednesday night that a way to save healthcare costs is to abandon the sort of care that "evidence shows is not necessarily going to improve" the patient's health. He went on to say that he had personal familiarity with such a situation when his grandmother broke her hip after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Obama offered a question on the efficacy of further care for his grandmother saying, "and the question was, does she get hip replacement surgery, even though she was fragile enough they were not sure how long she would last?"

But who is it that will present the "evidence" that will "show" that further care is futile? Are we to believe that Obama expects individual doctors will make that decision in his bold new government controlled healthcare future? If he is trying to make that claim it is a flat out untruth and he knows it...

Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

[DJ MacWoW]

What one generation condones, the next practices.

[devane617]

Just plain spooky...When will the MSM turn and start asking questions....

[devane617]

It’s what happens when people are brainwashed into a ‘now’ mentality.

[silverleaf]

“and the question was, does she get hip replacement surgery, even though she was fragile enough they were not sure how long she would last?”

NO. The question was, WHO DECIDES.

Madelyn Dunham God rest her soul, made her own decision.

Her distant grandson (who expressed “joy” at her death), would obviously have made a different decision- such decisions being well within “his” paygrade.

No one had the balls to ask Obama WHO PAID for his grandmother’s hip replacement and whether Michelle’s mother will be denied a hip replacement if she enters the same situation and “he” is making the decision..

[two-edged-sword]

Don’t hold your breath to see this covered in AARP Magazine. They are strong Democrat supporters.

[livius]

Yes, this is directed at the Boomers. We have paid insane and ever rising Social Security for decades, our parents (who paid little and sometimes nothing in SS) have gotten the mega-money payback from it, and way too many of us just foolishly assumed it would be the same for us, particularly with all that we paid into it. But it’s not going to work that way.

And people who looked for other strategies, such as IRAs, etc. have seen that taken away from them, too.

So I guess we’re supposed to do our last day of work, hand the gold watch off to the next person in line, and make a beeline for Dr. Kevorkian’s office.

[Billg64]

bump

[WayneS]

Did Obama Say We Should Kill the Old Folks to Save Money Last Night?

Not in so many words, but I think he made it pretty clear to those who were actually listening, that that is the road he his heading down with his plan" to lower health care costs.

[Sender]

Obama is merely reading from the playbook that Tom Daschle started, which clearly stated that doctors in America need to follow the European model and be able to accept a "hopeless diagnosis", especially with the elderly. They also said that old people need to "accept" the pains and problems that come with age and not necessarily to expect expensive therapies to relieve the inevitable.

In other words, Grandma won't get the hip replacement, and Grandpa won't get expensive meds. All you old people need to accept that you're dying. We have a vast new beaurocracy to pay for.

[WayneS]

Now that you mention it, yes, it is quite ironic.

[staytrue]

If you look at the demographics of who lives a long time, it is overwhelmingly white and asian. The blacks die very early.

[Budge]

They want the Baby Boomers to die off quickly.

This is true. But an even bigger threat are the seniors 60, 70, and older who can tell truths about the freedoms that are now lost, but were plentiful when we/they were growing up.

An America very unlike todays amerika.

[tumblindice]

“kill” is such a harsh word ... Let’s say, they will leave us
on ice floes without fire, or without water in the desert.

[Texan]

AND.....there’s the added bonus of less Social Security payments when the old folks die off sooner rather than later. Nobody talks about that but I’m sure it’s part of the plan.

[chuckles]

Been teelin ya’ll that for years. If they win, you die.

[mrmeangenes]

Hmmm.....

Let me say this: First: I’m a “commonsense-i-tarian” , which puts me at odds with some here.
Second: I have had some “hands on experience” with the issues raised by “Publius”.

My late wife passed away in March,2007 from ovarian cancer: a disease that is well known to be an 85% killer of women in otherwise excellent health, who receive prompt, skillful medical intervention.

Before she went in for her operation, an eye doctor-well aware of her condition-persuaded her to undergo laser surgery to remove cataracts on her eyes.

After her operation,following a long period of nursing home and home care, this 130 lb. woman, who had dwindled down to a mere 80 pounds, was told by her cancer surgeon she should undergo chemotherapy.

Doubting her ability to withstand such a torturous procedure,I persuaded her to get a second opinion ; and, in due time a second oncologist examined her as she sat there near death, and said : “Oh yes ! The sooner the better ! Let’s arrange to have a (chemo) port put in.”

The hospital he sent her to said: “Hey ! This woman is dying. We can’t put a port in her !” (Finally, a bit of medical ethics !)

She proved them right 4 days later - but only after enduring almost a day of agony - caused by an ethically challenged respiratory specialist who insisted on intubating her without benefit of anesthesia. (He thought it might interfere with her circulation.)

That’s my experience, and,push comes to shove,I’ll bet there are some of you who have had similar experiences with the Medical establishment.

Apart from your understandable dislike of Obama, how do you REALLY feel about medical procedures that do nothing for the dying-but fatten the purses of establishment members ?

[murron]

And at what point are we considered “old”? 60? 50?

[murron]

Hey, we’re all dying from the moment of conception. If the good care is given to the young, then it will prolong their lives so they can live longer, and then there will be more old people to take care of in the future. So why give good care to anyone?

[squarebarb]

Could you not have told the respiratory specialist ‘No’?
Could you not have refused any of these treatments if you did not want them? I mean you and your late wife.

And, my deepest sympathies. I have lost many family members to that horrible disease. May she rest in eternal peace.

[Jess Kitting]

Read the fine print of Obamacare.

Government bureaucrats will be making health care decisions for you and your loved ones.

They will be determine who gets treatment and who doesn't.
They will decide who lives and who dies.