Posted on 01/14/2014 2:25:16 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
NYT's Bill Keller thinks he's enlightened for endorsing palliative care. Here's how he's affirming right-wing mania.
This is long lost in the mists of time, but the single most contemptible lie about Obamacare — that it includes “death panels” — wasn’t originally rooted in vague notions of rationing or socialization. It began as a paranoid, dishonest critique of a provision included in early drafts of a bill that ultimately became the Affordable Care Act.
Back in the summer of 2009, healthcare reformers hoped the final legislation would allow physicians to bill Medicare when they provide end of life counseling to seniors who want it.
Reform opponents on the far fringes of the right fused an immensely dishonest depiction of this provision with equally dishonest characterizations of existing programs designed for efficient and effective provision of healthcare services to claim that under Obamacare providers would be required to encourage sick people to transition from curative to hospice care earlier than they might otherwise be inclined. Perhaps at the expense of experimental treatments that might save their lives.
The attack was vile enough to discredit its original promotors and confine them to the periphery of public debate, but it created a large enough public backlash that terrified Democrats ultimately dropped the provision from the bill.
The episode was a huge, needless, depressing setback to the providers, patients, activists and others who are trying to bring some sanity to the way we treat terminally ill patients....
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
Death Panels are under-rated.
Big help for SocSec and Medicare budgets long term.
Every year sliced off the lifespan is huge.
If the kiddies get antsy about grandma’s premature demise, the regime will send out some Groupons for student loan remission.
Smear??? From all reports, she was spot-on!
NYTimes Bill "Just Die Already" Keller Confirms Palin's Obamacare Death Panel smear fears.
I don’t get it.
I’m too tired of this crap to even try to understand it.
Death Panels is such an ugly term. If you call it something warm and fuzzy like “Transitional Progression Assistance” it ain’t so bad.
Reading and article in Salon is an adventure in surrealism.
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