The Birth of Death Panels
A Congressman offers a lesson today about how politics and the media collude to distort rational discussion.
In an Op Ed, Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon explains how his bipartisan proposal to have Medicare pay for voluntary end-of-life discussions morphed into death panels:
“I found it perverse that Medicare would pay for almost any medical procedure, yet not reimburse doctors for having a thoughtful conversation to prepare patients and families for the delicate, complex and emotionally demanding decisions surrounding the end of life. So when I was working on the health care bill, I included language directing Medicare to cover a voluntary discussion with a doctor once every five years about living wills, power of attorney and end-of-life treatment preferences…
“Indeed, the majority of Congressional Republicans supported the similar provisions for terminally ill elderly patients that were part of the 2003 prescription drug bill. In the spring of 2008, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska issued a proclamation that stated the importance of end-of-life planning.”
During debate, no one in Congress offered any objection until Betsy McCaughey, who had savaged Clinton health care, in a radio interview claimed that the provision would “absolutely require that every five years people in Medicare have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life sooner.”
That statement was labeled a “Pants on Fire falsehood” by the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Politifact, but Sarah Palin, a McCaughey clone, raised it to a higher level on her Facebook page with the warning that “my parents or my baby with Down syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’” while Rush Limbaugh chimed in and the Republicans in Congress all joined the attacks as if they had received their marching orders from on high.
2 Responses to “The Birth of Death Panels”
The Left continues to distort this issue, be it out of defensiveness or outright dishonesty, but it continues to fail. The concept related to the “death panels” has been around for almost fifty years, and politics of the Left related not only to euthanasia but to command and control of medicine, for example, have been present for decades. One wonders why the Left continues to engage in such transparent, pathetic denials, as if they expect everyone to be as uneducadable and irremediable as they are.
DLS, you are on the money here. The term “Death Panels” has been sensationalized by the media while the real issue of the Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel decision-making panel (already passed with the Obama Stimulus plan) will be in charge of what to do is (and most likely when) we come to a rationing situation. I have yet to hear the MSM attempt to analyze Emanuel's “Life Years” calculation to determine who gets certain treatments over others. Plus, that gets thrown out versus someone with political connections getting the special favors over everyone.
Every day, Dr. McCaughey's discoveries and criticisms of both recent “Health Care” bills are being proven true and punching holes in the lies and distortions of her positions perpetrated by the Government, Left-leaning advocates and the mainstream media.
Rep Blumenauer, in his piece, proved himself to be the phony as he should be thanking the media for helping his side attempt to destroy anyone who questions the conventional wisdom of the current crop of socialized health care legislation.