GOP Senator Undercuts Republican Claim That Dem Health Care Bill Will Cause “Government Euthanasia”
As I’ve been noting, conservatives and Republican leaders have been running wild with the claim that the House Dems’ health care reform bill, by offering Medicare funding for “end of life consultations,” could lead to mass “government-encouraged euthanasia.”
But it turns out a GOP Senator, Susan Collins, sponsored a virtually identical initiative this spring, before this became an anti-reform GOP talking point — and praised it as necessary to improving our health care system’s “care for patients at the end of their lives.”
This sharply undercuts the GOP and conservative claim — unless, of course, you believe Collins backed an initiative she thinks could lead to mass government extermination of the elderly. Though this talking point has been debunked multiple times, conservatives and GOP leaders like John Boehner continue to employ it with abandon.
On May 22nd, Senators Collins and Jay Rockefeller introduced the “Advance Planning and Compassionate Care Act,” according to a press release sent over by a source. The measure provides Medicare funding “for advance care planning so that patients can routinely talk to their physicians about their wishes for end-of-life care,” the release says.
Collins praised the measure, which may be included in the Senate health care bill, in the release. “Our legislation will improve the way our health care system care for patients at the end of their lives,” she said, “and it will also facilitate appropriate discussions and individual autonomy in making decisions about end-of-life care.”
Maybe someone should ask Senator Collins whether she’s concerned that Federal funding for end of life consultations could result in “government-encouraged euthanasia,” as we keep hearing. Come to think of it, maybe I’ll ask her.
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This is exactly WHY the Republicans are becoming more and more irrelevant to our country’s future. They continue to play this BE VERY AFRAID tactic and have now resorted to scaring the Elderly. It’s beyond SICK and IGNORANT. Senator Collins should be ashamed of herself for WASTING our hard-earned tax paying dollars for this foolishness. Bottom line.
Republicans would rather WASTE TIME and MONEY of issues such as these than GET TO WORK HELPING AMERICANS GET AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE and FIX THE ECONOMY THEY THEMSELVES BROKE!!!
How stupid is that? Senator Collins YOU ARE A TRUE COWARD.
that wasn’t quite the point of the post…or at least I hope it wasn’t…
OT,
Update on Palin Radio Show: Clear Channels Reportedly Passes
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/blog/Fates_Fortunes/20621-Syndicating_Sarah_Palin_Part_2_The_Next_Rush_Limbaugh_.php
Please do! And let us know if you get an answer.
OT, but Greg did you hear about the FOX news poll on what Sarah Palin should do now that she’s not gov?
Just 6% of those polled for Fox think Palin should be President. And just in case you think that it’s all liberals flooding the polls, only 12% of Republicans think Palin should be President.
The number one result, and not surprisingly the most sexist: 32% think she should become a “Homemaker”!
And people still think Palin is a “contender” for Prez in 2012?
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/just-6-of-a-fox-news-poll-think-palin-should-be-president-and-other-storylines-from-day-1-post-palin/
What pi$$es me off is that Chris Matthews, a supposed “liberal”, goes on his show yesterday woefully uninformed on the subject and TOTALLY misrepresents it not only taking the right wing view of the provision but going as far as to out and out LIE and say its not for medicare and that even if it was medicare already has it. That stupid mofo should open his show with an apology and a corretion about it.
Greg maybe you could call his office and ask if he is going to issue a correction on air.
You know when my mom was admitted to the hospital on thousands of ocassions, a medicade representative would come by her room each and every time and hand us a “LIVING WILL” to fill out when we had time. It didn’t cost a dime. It asks questions about life support and things of that nature. My mom also signed a DNR because she knew when the time came she did not want to be revived. We filled it out her doctor’s signed it as witinesses and they had a copy in her file at the hospital and we had a copy at home as well as a copy of the DNR form. It was not morbid at all. Chris Matthews was freaking out for nothing yesterday. There is nothing wrong with making the public, especially the younger generation aware of living wills. If you don’t fill it out just get one from the administration office at your local hospital and read it. It is not a death sentence people. From what the President said, it’s in the bill to make people more aware that it exists. If you have specific requests in case of a serious illness or whatever, the LIVING WILL must be honored by your family. It is a legal document and it can accompany for lack of a better word “legal will” that you pay an attorney to draw up for you. It’s not the end of the world.
You know when my mom was admitted to the hospital on thousands of ocassions, a medicade representative would come by her room each and every time and hand us a “LIVING WILL” to fill out when we had time. It didn’t cost a dime. It asks questions about life support and things of that nature. My mom also signed a DNR because she knew when the time came she did not want to be revived. We filled it out her doctor’s signed it as witinesses and they had a copy in her file at the hospital and we had a copy at home as well as a copy of the DNR form. It was not morbid at all. Chris Matthews was freaking out for nothing yesterday. There is nothing wrong with making the public, especially the younger generation aware of living wills. If you don’t fill it out just get one from the administration office at your local hospital and read it. It is not a death sentence people. From what the President said, it’s in the bill to make people more aware that it exists. If you have specific requests in case of a serious illness or whatever, the LIVING WILL must be honored by your family. It is a legal document and it can accompany for lack of a better word “legal will” that you pay an attorney to draw up for you. It’s not the end of the world.
OH! You’re my new favorite blogger fyi
I worked in hospice for a few years, and you would be surprised how many people won’t even TALK about end of life care. We are all dying, it’s just a matter of when and how. Putting one’s wishes in writing saves millions of dollars every year in care that is being delivered SOLELY to ensure that the MD is not sued for malpractice if something goes wrong unexpectedly. The emphasis on quality, vs. quantity of care is the key issue, and that would require that people actually have to justify the tests the order for a patient. Easily done if you’re within ethical boundaries, not so easy if you’re used to milking the system, ordering every diagnostic test under the sun for someone who is clearly terminally ill (I saw this on a DAILY BASIS!). Talking about one’s wishes is just like taking out life insurance, reserving a burial plot, and making other types of final arrangements for possessions. It’s designed to make your wishes CLEAR and enforceable. It also relieves a lot of anxiety from your loved ones who have to make those decisions if you don’t. It’s without a doubt the responsible thing to do! A secondary gain – incredibly effective in reducing hospitalization expenses, which is the source of most medical bankruptcy.
At age 65, and having had cancer treatment last year, I think life ending information is practical and neccesary for the family to consider. It could head off legal problems later. I think it would be a great idea.
Remember the movie Soylent Green from 1973? From Wikipedia here’s my point:
“Unable to live with what he has uncovered, Roth opts for assisted suicide or active, voluntary euthanasia (euphemistically known as “going home”) at a government clinic. There, he is taken to a comfortable bed, is given a poison-laced beverage, and is shown panoramic views of an unspoiled pristine Earth as he dies.”
Repuglican politics seems to be imitating the movies – 35 years later.
I live in Canada. We have universal healthcare and it works! My 87-year-old mother had quintuple bypass surgery last year. She waited 2 days for it. She spent 3 weeks in state-of-the-art intensive care; 2 weeks in cardiac care; 6 weeks in a rehab facility at zero cost. We researched the cost of this in the U.S.: $350,000! She would have died from not being able to pay for it, NOT because our government felt she had lived long enough. The GOP are a bunch of lying morons. They are greedy and they have no collective conscience. No one in Canada faces bankruptcy due to high medical costs, which allows us to afford paying off our mortgages and we do not face foreclosures. Jobs are still available here as well. Suffer the children if healthcare is not passed. Healthcare is a right, not a privilege. We wish all Americans well and hope you will soon enjoy a richer quality of life when you no longer have to choose between healthcare and other pressing priorities. Gotta go -I just received a call notifying me that I am due for my bi-annual FREE mammogram!
80% of the lifetime cost of health care occurs in the last year of life. This is often NOT a kindness. For instance, a friend is 88 years old and well over a million dollars has been spent on his health care over the past year. He has wide spread cancer, less than 10% heart function, failing kidneys, lungs that fill with liquid every time he goes home from the hospital and he’s been weak and miserable for over a year. His million dollar bill only bought a year of feeling lousy. Is that a kindness? Finally, they’re quitting, but it would have been much kinder and wiser to quit last year. Would most of us choose a year of misery at the end if we could avoid it? No one even told him what to expect, they just did a million dollars worth of tests, surgeries and hospitalizations. People should have a right to know the truth and make a choice. Everyone should be kept as pain free as possible but we should know our realistic options and be allowed to make our own choices. If you knew that your kid was going to have to pay that million dollars back, would you choose that last miserable year? Well, guess what? Your kids do have to pay for it. And your grand kids. And they likely won’t have health insurance for life either unless we finally get universal health care passed.
Speaking as a physician and as a researcher who actually studies the effect of a living will as it pertains to patient care, Living Wills are not needed for all until we correct the patient safety risks. Living wills were once created to refuse living saving care. They are now created to accept or refuse life saving care. That has not be completely realized by the healthcare profession. I would urge anyone who is commmenting on this topic to dop two things. First search out the TRIAD Studies I & II (TRIAD = The Realistic Interpretation of Advanced Directives). Second search out a guide called “Understanding Your Living Will” What you need to know before a medical emergency. This was published by Addicus books http://www.addicusbooks.com
There is one thing that is certain, the effects of a living will were never appropriately studies with respect to patient safety. We now know that patients who would have survived an event and have a good quality of life, have died due to the lack of understanding of these documents.
In 1995 my mother had a massive coronary. In agony, she was
able to call me at the Home Health Agency where I worked.
My boss who was an RN and I rushed to my mother’s home. The
RN performed CPR and though at one time, she did get a pulse, she told me that Mom was gone. The ambulance arrived
within 5 min. and because my mother did not have an Advanced
Directive, they said they had to try to revive her. I fought against it as Mom had told me many times that she
did not want to be kept alive in a hospital or nursing home
if she didn’t know anything. She had never signed an
Advance Directive though she was given one each of the two
times she had been admitted to the hospital the previous
two months. I had to watch the ambulance crew give more
CPR, pound on her chest and run tubes down her throat. It
was a horrible thing. They then rushed her to the hospital
and took her to the emergency room and I was not allowed
into the room. For over 30 min. they had her in there and
then the Dr. came out and said there was one more extreme
procedure they could try, but I asked about the fact that
my mother had not had any oxygen to the brain for over 30
minutes, and wouldn’t she be brain dead. The doctor said
that she would. So my brother and I decided they should
not do any more procedures. If my mother had talked to a
doctor about the Advance Directives and she would have signed it expressing her desire not to be kept alive, her
lifeless body would not have been subjected to these pro-
cedures, and I would not have the guilt I have lived with
for all these years, not just because Mom’s wishes were
violated, but in the end having to make the decision to
let her go. I wish now that I had encouraged her to sign
the Advance Directive, but this is a very delicate matter
and not something you talk to your mother about over dinner
when she’s feeling good. I can’t believe the Republicans
are lying about the Advance Directives. Surely some of them
have gone through the experience I have. They are just
scaring the elderly for political reasons and it’s disgusting!!!
Here’s another slant on this. I know of a man who has been diagnosed with liver cancer. He had no insurance (had worked all his life as a painter and a carpenter), so he was immediately put on Medicaid. He is still alive (barely) one and a half years after his diagnosis. During that one and a half years, he has undergone EXPERIMENTAL treatments that are unbelieveable. For example, his doctors at one of the most presitigeous teaching hospitals, injected chemotherapy directly into his liver. That nearly killed him, and then he was told they planned on doing it 6 more times. All this while awaiting a liver transplant, which never materialized. Other complications that arose because of the cancer also had to be dealt with. Gall bladder removal, infections, etc., etc., …. Many, many hospitalizations and medications later, he is now no longer a candidate for a liver transplant, is still going through the chemo procedure and is not expected to live very much longer. His quality of life is non-existant.
I am glad that he was able to utilize Medicaid in this country, but do you know how much money has been spent on his care? Where do you think it comes from? It comes from you and me and everyone else in this country. So, apparently we are paying a lot of money on health care, anyway. Why can’t we have a thorough and honest debate on the REAL COST of health care?
To sgwhiteinfla. Chris Matthews is a loser. He does this all the time. This guy has no courage of his convictions. His show’s ratings are terrible so I guess he has to do something to gin it up. I saw that and I have seen him do it before. he gave credence to some talk show host who is saying that when you go into the hospital they will ask you a bunch of questions and somehow slip in one that will make you agree to end your life if you cost too much (that’s it in a nutshell even though i didn’t do a great job of explaning it). It’s so bizarre that it is laughable.
Yes Greg, maybe you could ask Chris why he gives this **** credence.
The GOP loves using scare tactics to try and get their way. This essentially makes them terrorists — according to the dictionary definition of terrorism!
Perhaps somebody should point out that the GOP’s claims to keep us safe from terrorism only came about by them becoming terrorists themselves…
have died due to the lack of understanding of these documents.
Thus the current initiative which is designed to PAY not just to hand out papers, but to EXPLAIN the legal issues surrounding them… In other words… A Very Good Thing…
The GOP wants to scare people into thinking this is “government-sanctioned euthansia” but the real goal is so they can get involved in a personal family matter on the national level and exploit it for political gains ala Terri Schiavo…
Matthews was woefully mis-informed yesterday.
I’ve some to the conclusion recently that Chris Matthews is a TROGAN HORSE – claims to be liberal democrat on the ouside but inside he is still the Hard Core Republican he always was.
This story should be widley distributed.
The Mains Stream Media should tell the public that yes the idea was introudced by Republican Susan Collins.
It’s easier to debunk a rumor when you can point to a name.
Those still in doubt can question Republican Susan Collins directly.
Hey Stupid, why don’t you learn the difference between “plum” and “plumb”.
This is some very information, I just wrapped up my paper for school and think i may need to bookmark or save this for the second class lol. You may have just made me a regular