Obamacare: Assisted Suicide Promoting
Congressman Behind End of Life Counseling Provision
The brouhaha over end of life counseling that caused the first of many
leaks that have begun to sink the Obamacare boat was written by an
assisted suicide advocate Congressman from Oregon named Earl
Blumenauer–working in close association, with–surprise, surprise!–the
assisted suicide advocacy group Compassion and Choices. Rita
Marker
traces the history of the clause in an important piece in the American
Thinker. From her column:
Blumenauer’s “end-of-life” terminology is part and parcel of Section
1233. Clearly expressing his ownership of the section, he
described an
incident that took place when he was presiding over House
proceedings.
Writing about Section 1233 in the Huffington Post, Blumenauer stated,
“Actually, I know a little bit about this section because it’s a bill
that I wrote which was incorporated into the overall
legislation.”called the “Advance Planning and Compassionate Care Act.”
In fact, a portion of that bill, (Sec. 211, p. 50) makes up almost the
entirety of Section 1233. Although Blumenauer and other defenders of
Section 1233 vociferously deny that it could have anything to do with
assisted suicide, his earlier bill acknowledged that assisted suicide
would be included in such consultations. Since federal law
currently
prohibits federal funding from being used for “items and services”
related to assisted suicide, Blumenauer inserted language into HR 2911
(Sec. 111, p. 19) stating that advance care planning “shall not be
construed to violate the Assisted Suicide Funding Restriction Act of
1997.” That exception did not make its way into HR 3200,
probably
because any reference to assisted suicide would raise red flags.
That’s very interesting to know, isn’t it? Supporters of the
section
have been shocked, shocked, that anyone could think that there was an
agenda at work. And wait, there is another bill in the Senate that
would apparently make end of life counseling anything but voluntary for
the physicians:
Blumenauer is not the only lawmaker to propose advance care planning
consultations. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced a similar
bill,
curiously called the “Senior Navigation and Planning Act of 2009″
(Warner told Medical Futility that he submitted the legislation because
Congress is considering health care reform and he would like to see
some of his ideas incorporated into that legislation. His
bill (Sec.
6, p. 14) would force doctors to provide information on advance
directives and other end-of-life planning tools in “a form and manner,
and at a time, determined to be appropriate by the Secretary [of Health
and Human Services].” The consequence for not doing so would be
severe. No payment would be made to physicians for any items and
services furnished after January 1, 2014, unless they agreed
(under a
process established by the Secretary) to provide individuals with
information on advance directives and other end-of-life planning tools.
Technically, a patient would not be forced to have an advance care
planning consultation. However, physicians would be unlikely to treat
them unless they agreed to do so since doctors who didn’t provide the
end-of-life talk would not be paid for any other services.
Hmmm. Now perhaps we know why an explicit voluntary clause for
both
patient and doctor was not put into HB 3200. Remember what I have
been
saying: It’s not the bill you have to worry about as much as the
regulations.
Oh, and guess what, SB 1251 creates an advisory panel that would have
bioehticists and other assorted people with a special interest in the
field as members. From the legislation:
SEC. 5. SENIOR NAVIGATION ADVISORY BOARD.
(a) Establishment- The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall
establish the Senior Navigation Advisory Board (in this section
referred to as the `Advisory Board’).
(b) Membership- The Board shall be comprised of advocates, researchers,
government officials, health care providers, ethicists, caregivers, and
other individuals with expertise in issues related to end-of-life care.
We know in which direction that boat would sail!
I don’t see why anyone would be surprised. This entire area of
controversy is primarily about cutting costs. And many think the best
way to do that is to tilt the playing field toward self rationing by
seniors. And if that doesn’t work, futile care theory will finish the
job.
Contact:
Wesley J. Smith
Source:
Secondhand Smoke
Publish
Date: September 8, 2009
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