Obama Returns to End-of-Life Plan That Caused Stir

From The New York Times.com (Dec. 25):

WASHINGTON — When a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning touched off a political storm over “death panels,” Democrats dropped it from legislation to overhaul the health care system. But the Obama administration will achieve the same goal by regulation, starting Jan. 1.

Under the new policy, outlined in a Medicare regulation, the government will pay doctors who advise patients on options for end-of-life care, which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment.

“While we are very happy with the result, we won’t be shouting it from the rooftops because we aren’t out of the woods yet,” Mr. Blumenauer’s office said in an e-mail in early November to people working with him on the issue. “This regulation could be modified or reversed, especially if Republican leaders try to use this small provision to perpetuate the ‘death panel’ myth.”  [read more]

I also heard this on Fox News too. Will  doctors get a bonus if they are able to persuade a patient to forg0 aggressive life-sustaining treatment? Nah. Then again since the gov’t is paying for the treatment they can dictate what treatments they will cover—you know like health insurance companies do now. And if the gov’t runs out of money for the treatment guess what will happen next. That’s right—no treatment at all or the minimal amount of treatment. And you have no choice or option in the matter since the gov’t is all you have for health insurance.