rightwinger
Award Winning USMB Paid Messageboard Poster
- Aug 4, 2009
- 288,918
- 170,281
- 2,615
Death Panels: Read it and absorb what it means.
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]
I think that the issues you raise are valid ones, and one "role model" for how such issues could be handled for the general population is provided by the Veteran's Administration.
One study of this issues appears in the report
"Physician-assisted suicide v Palliative care: a tale of two cities" which is quoted below:
"In Portland [Oregon], the Veterans Medical Center has a multidisciplinary palliative care team with medical, nursing, psychology ,social work and psychiatric in put. I [the report's author] attended a multidisciplinary team meeting and met highly skilled palliative care specialists. There was a wide ranging discussion around medical, social, psychological and spiritual issues for each patient. This team works with patients in the Veterans Center and has no outpatient or community remit. Indeed families of the veterans are not covered by this Center."
Amazing for what passes as reading comprehension for Right Wingnuts.
Advanced care planning consultation equates to DEATH PANEL. When you are old an infirm, you have decisions to make as to how you want to spend your last days. Some want to fight till the bitter end, others want to die with dignity. The decision is yours.
A DEATH PANEL reviews the quality of your life and decides for you whether you should continue to receive care. Big difference
Last edited: