Health Care Reform and End of Life Care
Health care reform is a serious issue and deserves a serious debate. It’s too bad that’s not the debate some are trying to promote.
First, we saw religious right leaders trying to kill reform with misinformation about abortion. Now, they’ve latched on to another controversial issue: euthanasia. And once again, they’re playing fast and loose with the facts.
To be clear: the health care reform bill does not promote euthanasia.
The provision reform opponents are focusing on is 1233 of the House health care bill. The section amends section 1861 of the Social Security Act so that doctors can now receive reimbursement from Medicare for discussing advanced care treatment plans (hospice, palliative care, do not resuscitate orders, etc.) with their patients, if they do so at the patient’s request.
Yet, this hasn’t stopped the critics from making outlandish accusations:
In short, is Euthanasia included in this National ‘Health Care’ Reform? The more I have looked at the proposals the more it seems not only possible, but probable.
Obama Promotes Euthenasia in Health Care Plan
–Jill Stanek
Congress would make it mandatory, absolutely require, that every five years, people in Medicare have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life sooner.
–Betsy McCaughey
Time, and time again, these accusations have been refuted.
Contrary to what the critics are saying, such counseling is NOT required and physicians will NOT be reimbursed for discussing unwanted or illegal treatments.
Perhaps most disturbing is that this fearmongering is taking place despite the nearly universal consensus among senior and patient advocacy groups that counseling options such as those included in the health care bill are a good thing because they encourage individuals and their families to think about their values and make decisions about end of life care before a crisis hits.
This measure would not only help people make the best decisions for themselves, but also better ensure that their wishes are followed. To suggest otherwise is a gross, and even cruel, distortion–especially for any family that has been forced to make the difficult decisions on care for loved ones approaching the end of their lives.
It’s a shame that those seeking to derail health care reform (as the Family Research Council has said it wants to) would turn healthy, constructive and completely optional conversations about end of life care into something to be feared. It will be an even greater shame if these distractions, lies and distortions derail the health care reform so many American families desperately need.
First, we saw religious right leaders trying to kill reform with misinformation about abortion. Now, they’ve latched on to another controversial issue: euthanasia. And once again, they’re playing fast and loose with the facts.
To suggest otherwise is a gross, and even cruel, distortion–especially for any family that has been forced to make the difficult decisions on care for loved ones approaching the end of their lives.