Jeb Bush calls for death panels.

[Greenbeard]

That's not a death panel dearie, that's calling making a choice in advance.

Repeating that lie over and over again is not going to make it true.

'Death panels' refers to, has always referred to and will continue to refer to panels that decide what procedures are and are not covered by insurance.

That's not a death panel, hun. The patient gets to decide what efforts he wishes to be used on his behalf.

How is that in any way a death panel? Man, I swear, you lefties are losing what little bit of a brain stem you had...

For those with short memories, the phrase "death panels" was coined specifically to refer to Medicare reimbursement for advance care planning (not requiring seniors to engage in end-of-life planning as Jeb seems to favor, merely allowing Medicare to compensate doctors for their time if a Medicare beneficiary wants to go through the exercise).

From the creator of that absurd phrase, an explanation of what it refers to: Concerning the "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 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 obviating 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.

- Sarah Palin

The death panels nonsense was entirely about advance care planning. In fact, it even resurfaced when the administrative again flirted with the idea of letting Medicare pay for these consultations in 2010 and 2014. Breitbart hysteria caps: FEDS MAY REIMBURSE MEDICARE 'END-OF-LIFE DISCUSSIONS' AFTER MOCKING PALIN'S 'DEATH PANELS'.

If this stuff isn't death panels fodder anymore, and a GOP-led Congress can pass an expansion of the ACA's value-based payment system (92-8 in a GOP Senate!) and send it to Obama for his signature, we may be turning an important page here.

It's about time.

 

[Zander]

Oh look it's GreenShill doing what he does best, shilling for Obamacare!! What a surprise!!!

 

[Greenbeard]

Oh look it's GreenShill doing what he does best, shilling for Obamacare!! What a surprise!!!

Actually, I'm shilling for the discarded pieces of the ACA that the GOP is now dusting off and inserting into candidate platforms. Jeb Bush is on the right track here, just as most GOPers in Congress were on the right track a few days ago when they patched the SGR. I'm as surprised as you are!

 

[Manonthestreet]

In 2009, the corrupt democrat-centric “PolitiFact” called Sarah Palin’s proclamation that ObamaCare had “death panels” essentially unelected, unaccountable, bureaucrats who could grant or deny treatment to patients, based on age, or even how much they “contribute” to society, the “Lie of the Year“. As we have learned since, the only lie, and liars, are those who have called Governor Palin a liar, and those who continue to lie about the absence of death panels in ObamaCare. Last September Steven Rattner, President’s former [and failed] Car Czar wrote an op-ed in the New York Times that not only admitted death panels were a part of Obama’s treacherous legislation, but the rationing of health care was essential:

These death panels, known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board [IPAB] are what everyone was talking about.
In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Governor Howard Dean, a one time presidential candidate, and a doctor, while shilling for ObamaCare in general, took a big swipe at the death panels included in this evil law, even going so far as saying this panels should be abolished! [emphasis mine] Howard Dean Yes There Are Death Panels in ObamaCare Governor Sarah Palin Responds A Time For Choosing