Posted on 08/13/2009 1:33:23 AM PDT by Yosemitest
Marking.
OMG, Your whole life will be owned by the government. This bill must not pass and Obama needs to go.
ping
for later
Sarah Palin's FaceBook response to 0bama mocking her concerns about 'death panels'.
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 Ive been hearing lately that we just need to dispose of here. The rumor thats 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 weve decided that we dont, its 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 theyre ready on their own terms. It wasnt 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, its 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 recipients 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 its all about alleviating suffering, emotional or physical, whats 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 arent 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, thats an incentive to insist.
Patients may refuse without penalty, but many will bow to white-coated authority. Once theyre 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 dont think hes 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, its 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 Presidents 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. Its 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.
I hope Dr. Lewis referenced the correct plan du jour, because they’re juggling a handful of them in the shell game on Capitol Hill.
You got it. I am retired from the health ins. biz. I was a large group rating and marketing rep. The advent of managed care was when it started going downhill. HMO plans were started and at first were cheaper but soon the cost could not be controlled and the people HATED it. The government option is flawed. First the option is not “optional”. It will turn several of the largest insurers in to administrative services companies only. Smaller companies will get out of the business. The Federal government will become the “gatekeeper”. Deciding who can recieve what services. Every election will be about health insurance and the benefits. The Federal Government will “manage”. Every aspect of life. I hope the people rise up and stop Obama.
I remember in the 80s I saw my first HMO. We hated it. Back then we couldn’t get in to see a doctor from the very first. The reason from the doctor they are not taking any new patients. Unbelievable. Two weeks later we had a meeting and got rid of the plan.
People should know how our parents and grandparents thought. They would never allow government including local and state to interfer. They knew by allowing the government to help; they would become slaves.
“Your whole life will be owned by the government.”
And thats their goal.
[How will the government ... pay for all this?
“Higher taxes, more borrowing, printing money, cutting payments, or rationing services]
The US government is destroying America and resists all attempts to fix any problem but does the worst job for all peoples.
It is corrupt and stinks to high heaven and may the Lord judge those people who support the legislation and never allow them to hold public office anymore.
What takes their place? Free market. It is the only solution. This is why Medical Savings Accounts will ultimately be the only answer. Let people decide for themselves what services they will pay for. There will continue to be terrible stories about 5 year olds with menningitis and such and the answer to these needs to be charity. Good old fashioned charity. The libtards have successfully brainwashed most of the U.S. into accepting their premise that your tax dollars relieve you of your obligation to be charitable. This kind of thinking has led the recipients of this charity to consider it a right. This is unacceptable. You can never use gummint to take what is someone else's and consider it your right. Period. This has to stop. It also is unsustainable.
Until actions that actually fix problems are taken, the problems will just get worse.
Exactly and they have convinced their voters that is Utopia; which is so far from the truth as it can get.
Why isn’t this video clip getting more publicity especially from the talk show hosts
http://hotairpundit.blogspot.com/2009/08/new-video-from-nakedemperornews-mother.html
Right. They were popular at first. But then the Doctors, Patients and providers got very angry when the insurance company got in between and tried to make decisions. Obama has a plan to turn the whole USA in to one huge HMO of very low quality with 200,000 buerocrats and 50 new government agencys between a doctor and a patient. It will be a total catastrophe. He is lying from start to finish.
BTT for later read.
Watch out now, Obama and Co have started to bring people on tv to pretend to be mad at the conservatives. They are, of course, lying big time and they want to make you mad for whatever.
Well you need to watch MSNBC and whatever they do not like...Do a lot more of it.
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Pingin' my General Interest AND Texas Lists here cuz I thought you'd wanna know!
Thanks for posting this, Yosemitest!! :)
Ping! Ping! Ping!
BTTT
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