Health care conversation stalls on dispute over euthanasia

Timothy Egan writes in the New York Times Outposts Blog that Sarah Palin’s criticism of the health plan proposal is “poison” that feeds a “lunatic fringe who channel in the flotsam of delusion, half-facts and conspiracy theories.”

An excerpt:

For a democracy, which depends on an informed citizenry to balance a permanent lobbying class, this is poison. And it’s one reason why town hall forums on health care, which should be sharp debates about something that affects all of us, have turned into town mauls.

… As for Palin, she should follow her own advice to the media of a few weeks ago – lay off the kids and “quit makin’ things up.”

See also:

• Gingrich warns of euthanasia-UPI
• The Simplest Explanation for Why Palin and Gingrich Are Wrong-Huffington Post by John R. Bohrer
• Health care debate steers into abortion, euthanasia-USA Today

Other posts start here.

From Jake Tapper on ABC’s ‘Political Punch’ blog, AP:

A statement posted on Sarah Palin’s Facebook page today labeled the administration’s health care plan as “evil,” and said it is designed to save money by withholding care from people with chronic illnesses and disabilities. An excerpt from the post, titled “Statement on the Current Health Care Debate”:

… who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

Tapper calls the claim “pants-on-fire untrue,” and offers refutations from Factcheck.org and Politifact.com.

Palin’s spokeswoman did not immediately confirm her authorship of the statement.

Earlier posts start here.

See also:

• Shameless scaremongering on euthanasia issue — By Jay Bookman, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
• Time to go, grampa — By Pat Buchanan, Townhall.com

Rebecca L. Taylor, an Ohio direct care worker, writes in the Chillicothe [OH] Gazette that her clients with developmental disabilities face discrimination and dismissive neglect when seeking help from medical professionals and emergency room staff.

She says she expects doctors and nurses to “treat these persons with the same dignity and respect you and I command from such professionals.”

… After speaking with many colleagues, I have found this not only is a deep frustration of mine, but also many other caregivers. This type of health care is obsolete and should not be stood for. A health care professional should be exactly that, professional. They should view each new patient as equally as important as the next, despite individual differences and uniqueness.

From the Washington Post:

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.

… 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.”

Defenders of the legislation, including lawmakers, the American Medical Association and the AARP respond that the accusations are untrue, offensive, and even cruel.

Earlier posts start here.

Rebecca Reisner, writing in Business Week, says an obscure end-of-life provision in the administration’s health care proposal is stoking passions in the “conservative blogosphere,” with claims that it is a step toward government-mandated euthanasia.

During an AARP-sponsored town hall meeting earlier this week, a woman told the President: “I have been told there is a clause in there that everyone that’s Medicare age will be visited and told to decide how they wish to die. This bothers me greatly, and I’d like for you to promise me that this is not in this bill.” Obama replied that the intent of the provision was to promote advance planning and living wills.

Advocates of the measure say critics have misinterpreted the provision, while opponents are contending that their criticism of it has been misunderstood. An AARP spokesman criticized “baseless scare tactics put out by those who seek to derail health-care reform.”

See also:

False euthanasia claims: The claim that the House health bill pushes suicide is nonsense — Factcheck.org

Earlier posts here, here and here.

From CNN:

Debbie Brown, a Sacramento woman, has been using a no-frills wheelchair provided by Medicare at a cost to taxpayers of about $1,200.

CNN went to Apria Healthcare, the same company that charges Medicare for the rental of Brown’s wheelchair, and paid cash for a comparable model. The cost: $349, or about a fourth of what taxpayers have paid to rent a chair for Brown.

Brown says taxpayers should be outraged.

By Carrie Budoff Brown in Politico:

Legislators and political commentators are sparring over a provision tucked deep inside the House health care reform bill that would provide Medicare coverage for an end-of-life consultation once every five years, and more frequently for a life-threatening illness.

House Minority Leader John Boehner and Republican Policy Committee Chairman Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) have issued a statement saying the measure “may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia.”

Betsy McCaughey, a former New York lieutenant governor and conservative health expert, said the measure amounts to pressure on vulnerable elderly and chronically ill people. “… it is not offering a service. It is pressuring them,” McCaughey said. “I would not want that to occur when I am not at my parents’ bedside.”

Proponents of the measure say it would not make the consultation mandatory. They say critics are using irresponsible rhetoric to drive a wedge between senior citizens and Democrats.

Earlier post here.