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How “Kill Granny” Slogans Pollute Health Reform Talks
Aug 1st, 2009 | 12 responses
On a recent Thursday company bus ride taking a group of my fellow seniors to shop at local grocery stores, Rosa announced how shamed she was because President Obama was born in Kenya and wanted to kill the elderly to save medical costs.
“What gives you that idea?” I asked.
“It’s true,” Rosa said. “It’s all over TV and radio. My neighbors John and Mary said the same thing. I’m scared out of my wits where our country is headed.”
“They’re full of crap,” I said.
“Oh, no,” Rosa insisted. “They showed a Congresswoman testifying Medicare will add a new provision making it mandatory to discuss how we want to die. My God, Jerry, they want to kill us. That’s what the Congresswoman said.” A discreet chap, I nixed the idea of getting involved in the birther nonsense.
Rosa is one of thousands of seniors contacting AARP and their congressmen who fear a tiny provision in one of the healthcare insurance reform bills that will lead to end-of-life rationing. The “Kill Granny” threat is echoed by House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Republican Policy Committee Chairman Thaddeus McCotter (Mich.) who said they object to the idea because it “may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia.”
Actually, the proposal in question is 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.
The confusion arises because, as The Washington Post notes today:
“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.”
At a town hall forum with AARP members last week, Obama said the intent of the physicians’ consultations was to encourage the elderly to draw up “living wills” as he and First Lady Michelle Obama have done. He also noted a letter received from an elderly person who lambasted creeping socialism into the healthcare system but at the same time admonished the president not to take away her Medicare benefits.
Rosa, John and Mary and myself reside in a senior complex. The central gathering for all 440 tenants is the 10 a.m. Friday coffee and donut meeting and greeting social. I took a sample of about 30 residents yesterday. Their opinions on the healthcare legislation essentially was divided in thirds.
One-third were well-informed but cautious and concerned about losing certain benefits. Another third fell into Rosa’s line of thinking. The rest of them told me to mind my own damn business.
According to WaPo, the genesis of the current controversy on talk radio
began when Betsy McCaughey, who helped defeat President Bill Clinton’s health-care overhaul 16 years ago, told former senator Fred D. Thompson (R-Tenn.) that mandatory counseling sessions with Medicare beneficiaries would “tell them how to end their life sooner” and would teach the elderly how to “decline nutrition . . . and cut your life short.”
The average cost of care for a chronically ill Medicare patient in the final six months of life is $46,400, according to Dartmouth University data.
Reports The Post:
In the past two weeks, AARP has fielded a few thousand calls from people who mistakenly think the legislation would require every Medicare recipient to “choose how they want to die,” said James Dau, a spokesman for the organization.
Though he is “willing to give the benefit of the doubt” to some who may be confused, Dau complained that the effort to “intentionally distort” the proposal “is just plain cruel to anyone who is forced to make one of these difficult decisions at the end of life.”
Next time I see Rosa I’ll pass this information along. I have this sinking feeling it won’t change hers — or others like hers — opinion.
12 Responses to “How “Kill Granny” Slogans Pollute Health Reform Talks”
Welcome to medicine by politics.
Yeah this is just a continuation of Republican Conservative propaganda garbage. For nearly two decades, Until the advent of Air America, created in self defense, Republicans and Communists were the only people proliferating this crap.
I believe Republicans would start killing people to keep them off Medicare and welfare if they could get away with it, because only people that believe in their heart that killing is a method to an end, could think this kind of propaganda up.
The Republicans, just like the Democrats, are rational actors in a system that decides things by sound bites. When it suits their purposes, neither side lets its messages get encumbered with facts.
What I can't fathom is why anyone would imagine a political machine like the one we have would be a trustworthy custodian of decisions about one's health.
Just like the GOP to start brush fires to spook the herd..
Moooooo!
I don't see how anyone can call this rational.
The sleep of reason breeds monsters.
[...] against as many walls as possible and hope something sticks, none of this stuff, including “kill Granny” and the rise in “birther” stories, should come as a surprise. And, though [...]
It is unfortunate that people that were elected to lead have to resort to scaring old ladies to promote their agenda. These people should be remembered and sent packing in the next election, maybe if they start getting the message that we want leaders he will start getting them.
So if the Democrats, Obama and the AARP team up to kill old people for about $400 each, the country would save $46,000 per head.
Run, Rosa……Run.
Madness….. the right wingers are all about propaganda, much like the nazi party of old. With there wars that kill more babies than the abortion clinics and these recent attacks on the elderly. We shouldn't forget about how John Kerry and Obama are both the Antichrist. The republiklans own the dumb and weak, they were bought with fear in the name of there true God, money…..
In the words of the late Bill Hicks
The world is like a ride in an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly colored and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question, is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, “Hey – don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride.” And we kill those people. examples( Jesus, JFK, John Lennon, MLKjr.)
This proposal is a response to those families who didn’t know their loved ones’ preferences when confronted with difficult decisions in an emergency. It empowers individuals to choose the best decisions for themselves, and better ensure their wishes are followed.
Section 1233 of the health care reform bill is being deliberately distorted.
Fact: Advance planning consultations are a completely voluntary, not mandatory.
Fact: No one will be forced to sign an advance care directive.
Fact: The legislation is endorsed by the Providence Health System, a Catholic health care provider.
Fact: Only a doctor or nurse practitioner can counsel patients.
Learn more here: http://www.compassionandchoices.org/act/legisla…
Carla Axtman
Online Community Builder
Compassion & Choices
compassionandchoices.org
I'm not against some sorta healthcare for every “Citizen”
but
Social Programs should only? be FOR THE POOR!!! ederly and handicapped “NOT ILLEGALS” and NOT ****FORCED ON THOSE who CAN PAY for their own… or have it through their employer
THIS IS AMERICA!
NOT NAZI GERMANY!
A “NAZIonal Healthcare plan” .. will LEAD to single payer as it's objective to sheild the the 1% from paying premiums and shield the Corporate elite employers from offering healthcare as part of the salary/compensation package and “”"force the? bill”"”" on the “proletariot” ..the taxpayer
THIS IS AMERICA
NOT NAZI GERMANY!
Nazionalizing healthcare only helps one group
“the Corporate elites” by taking the bill off them in including “healthcare” in benefits/salary compensation
and “FORCES” the bill onto the “TAXPAYER” the worker!!!!!!!!!!!!
Once again:
I'm not against some sorta healthcare for every “Citizen” ……….but………………….
Social Programs should only? be FOR THE POOR!!! ederly and handicapped “NOT ILLEGALS” and NOT ****FORCED ON THOSE who CAN PAY for their own… or have it through their employer
THIS IS AMERICA
NOT NAZI GERMANY!