The fear-mongering from Republicans on the proposed federal health care reform bill is out of control, and they now have a new talking point: assisted suicide for the elderly.
Republicans are latching on to a provision in the bill that allows an option for elderly patients who want to learn more about living wills, health care proxies and other forms of end-of-life planning to make the outrageous claim that it would mandate end-of-life counseling. Some, like U.S. Rep. Thad “Mad Thad” McCotter, R-Livonia, - known for his inflammatory and false rhetoric against Democrats – is making the ridiculous claim that the government will engage in and encourage assisted suicide.
They are pushing the nutty rumor that when a person reaches Medicare age, they will be visited by a government worker to ask them how they want to die. Unbelievable; health care reform is really a plan to kill old people? It wasn’t clear if the government employee would be required to carry a scythe.
The Rachel Maddow Show aired audio sound bites on some of these outrageous claims by Republicans, and McCotter was featured talking on a rightwing radio show bringing up the specter of Dr. Death, Jack Kevorkian.
Republican members of Congress have actually been pushing this outrageous lie from the House floor. We have heard comparisons to Hitler, Mao and now Dr. Death.
How far will they go to protect record profits for insurance companies? All I know is we haven’t got there yet.
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H.R. 3200 and the Senate Health Committee Bill -- will reduce access to care, pressure the elderly to end their lives prematurely, and doom baby boomers to painful later years.
When comparative effectiveness research appeared in the stimulus bill, Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., (R., La.) a heart surgeon, warned that it would lead to "denying seniors and the disabled lifesaving care." He and Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) proposed amendments to no avail that would have barred the federal government from using the research to eliminate treatments for the elderly or deny care based on age.
The House bill shifts resources from specialty medicine to primary care based on the misconception that Americans overuse specialist care and drive up costs in the process (pp. 660-686). In fact, heart-disease patients treated by generalists instead of specialists are often misdiagnosed and treated incorrectly. They are readmitted to the hospital more frequently, and die sooner.
"Study after study shows that cardiologists adhere to guidelines better than primary care doctors," according to Jeffrey Moses, a heart specialist at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Adds Jeffrey Borer, chairman of medicine at SUNY Downstate Medical Center: "Seldom do generalists have the knowledge to identify the symptoms of aortic valve disease, even though more than 10% of people over 75 have it. After valve surgery, patients who were too short of breath to walk can resume a normal life into their 80s or 90s."
While the House bill being pushed by the president reduces access to such cures and specialists, it ensures that seniors are counseled on end-of-life options, including refusing nutrition where state law allows it (pp. 425-446). In Oregon, the state is denying some cancer patients care that could extend their lives and is offering them physician-assisted suicide instead.
Wrong again. That is nothing but an outrageous lie, and fear mongering. Like fact check says, “The claim that the House health care bill pushes suicide is nonsense.”
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/07/false-euthanasia-claims/
Hmm, do I believe a guy that cares so little for his own wife by not doing what's necessary to get her health coverage or do I read the bill? Gee, that's not even a tough choice. I'll believe the dishonest politicians before I'd believe a guy that lives in the basement of his mothers house with his wife and doesn't do anything to get her the care she needs.
I’m simply like the more than 47 million Americans without heath care, and that number is increasing by 14,000 each day: I simply can’t stretch my budget any farther. I guess when you can’t stand on the facts, you will continue to stoop to personal attacks.
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