Talk Radio Campaign Frightens Seniors
Counseling Pitched as 'Death Care'
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 1, 2009
A campaign on conservative talk radio, fueled by President Obama's calls to control exorbitant medical bills, has sparked fear among senior citizens that the health-care bill moving through Congress will lead to end-of-life "rationing" and even "euthanasia."
The controversy stems from a proposal to pay physicians who counsel elderly or terminally ill patients about what medical interventions they would prefer near the end of life and how to prepare instructions such as living wills. Under the plan, Medicare would reimburse doctors for one session every five years to confer with a patient about his or her wishes and how to ensure those preferences are followed. The counseling sessions would be voluntary.
But on right-leaning radio programs, religious e-mail lists and Internet blogs, the proposal has been described as "guiding you in how to die," "an ORDER from the Government to end your life," promoting "death care" and, in the words of antiabortion leader Randall Terry, an attempt to "kill Granny."
Though the counseling provision is a tiny part of a behemoth bill, the skirmish over end-of-life care, like arguments about abortion coverage, has become a distraction and provided an opening for opponents of the president's broader health-care agenda. At a forum sponsored by the seniors group AARP that was intended to pitch comprehensive reform, Obama was asked about the "rumors." He used the question to promote living wills, noting that he and the first lady both have them.
(More here.)
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 1, 2009
A campaign on conservative talk radio, fueled by President Obama's calls to control exorbitant medical bills, has sparked fear among senior citizens that the health-care bill moving through Congress will lead to end-of-life "rationing" and even "euthanasia."
The controversy stems from a proposal to pay physicians who counsel elderly or terminally ill patients about what medical interventions they would prefer near the end of life and how to prepare instructions such as living wills. Under the plan, Medicare would reimburse doctors for one session every five years to confer with a patient about his or her wishes and how to ensure those preferences are followed. The counseling sessions would be voluntary.
But on right-leaning radio programs, religious e-mail lists and Internet blogs, the proposal has been described as "guiding you in how to die," "an ORDER from the Government to end your life," promoting "death care" and, in the words of antiabortion leader Randall Terry, an attempt to "kill Granny."
Though the counseling provision is a tiny part of a behemoth bill, the skirmish over end-of-life care, like arguments about abortion coverage, has become a distraction and provided an opening for opponents of the president's broader health-care agenda. At a forum sponsored by the seniors group AARP that was intended to pitch comprehensive reform, Obama was asked about the "rumors." He used the question to promote living wills, noting that he and the first lady both have them.
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
Not only is regulation of your “death” by the government a concern on the radio, but so is
control of who can have children.
Here’s the short recap : Jacquelyn in Wichita, Kansas complains that “One of these days we'd like to start a family on our time and our choice, and according to some of the legislation in this bill, this health care bill, the government will get to dictate when we can have children” [SNIP] “…if it turns out that for some reason Brandon and I can't, for some reason, conceive and we have to have fertility treatments or something, they can say, "Oh, well, no, you don't get to," or, "Well, no, we're not ready for you, you have to stay on birth control."
Later Jacquelyn explains why the government is doing that : “Because I'm a Republican and they don't want me spawning more little Republicans.”
Fortunately, the program host clarified everything to put all his listeners at ease :
RUSH: “I've heard that this fear from so many people who have called this program, that whatever the rules in this bill are, that if you're a Democrat it's going to be a little easier for you to be massaged through the system, you're going to be punished less, your wait list will be shorter if you're a Democrat. A lot of people have this fear. It tells me that people know who this guy is and what he's all about. Jacquelyn, thanks for the call, I appreciate it. They're going to control family planning. Now, the real reason they want to control family planning, you could throw in, yeah, they want to limit the number of potential Republicans born and so forth to counter all the liberals being aborted."
Gosh, I wish I knew where this stuff comes from. I suspect it is from Section 1308 which would allow the program to cover payments for licensed marriage counselors and family therapists … for example, this would mean that Bachmann Counseling would be eligible to receive government payments.
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