Submitted to a Candid World

You know us crazy liberals: We’re not satisfied until we have coerced a million doe-eyed college co-eds into abortion clinics to wrench their babies from their wombs. Apparently, too, we aren’t satisfied until the federal government goes in and tricks grandma and grandpa into committing suicide so that we can save a few bucks on Medicare expenses.

We’ve seen shades of the former accusation on this site many-a-time, but the latter’s a new one. Courtesy of a Right-Wing-Nut comes this little gem to my personal e-mail (bold mine):

This is not to scare anyone but to inform you. This health care bill is the biggest defining legislation in our country’s history.  We all have to be informed on [sic] what is taking place in this health care take over. …

Here’s information on the health care [sic]:

“ON PAGE 425 OF OBAMA’S HEALTH CARE BILL, the Federal Government will require EVERYONE who is on Social Security to undergo a counseling session every 5 years with the objective being that they will explain to them just how to end their own life earlier. Yes…They are going to push SUICIDE to cut medicare spending!”

The GOP and the insurance industry are in full-frontal-assault-mode right now, working feverishly to stoke fear (in the name of “information”) with all levels of hysteria over impending health-care reform. Their catalysts of said fear: under-informed social conservatives (apologies for the unavoidable redundancy).

But like Karl Rove so cynically used wedge politics to spin the Christian Right into a frothy maelstrom of hate and fear that catapulted him and his powerful patrons to the highest levels of power, so too, is today’s GOP and their insurance-industry donors. Along with Bill Kristol, good ol’ Fred Thompson is in on the action allowing deliberate misinformation to enter the public debate. Click here to listen to Fred chat with Betsy McCaughey about the dread page 425 in the 1018-page proposed bill (H.R. 3200) that passed the House Committee on Education and Labor last Friday.

Here’s an excerpt of McCaughey’s hysteria (bold mine):

I am so shocked at the vicious assault on elderly people and the Boomer Generation in this bill. I hope that people listening will protect their parents from what is intended under this bill.

Whither the viciousness? Language in the bill that provides for standardization of Advance Health Care Directives (a.k.a. Living Wills, Health Care Proxies) that are currently recognized in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. These documents EMPOWER INDIVIDUALS, enabling them to set out what they expect in terms of health care should they be incapacitated or otherwise unable to speak for themselves in critical situations.

While, indeed, the bill requires practitioners (a physician, a nurse practitioner, or a physician’s assistant) to revisit the matter of an Advance Health Care Directive every five years with their patients age 65 and over (when directives are viewed as most important … Frankly, every person over the age of 18 should have one.) at NO POINT IN SECTION 1233 IS EUTHANASIA EXPLICITLY — OR IMPLICITLY — FAVORED. Again, Advance Health Care Directives are intended to provide clarity in emergency situations, and through that clarity, empower patients!!! A person can have a “do not resuscitate order” in his or her directive as easily as a person can state he or she wants to exhaust all levels of available care to sustain life. Click here for a sample directive from wacky, liberal California. Similarly, here is information from the Oklahoma Bar Association on directives in their state. They are remarkably similar. Seriously, read these links and see how much control an individual has over his or her life, even in times of crisis or incapacitation, by simply possessing an Advance Health Care Directive.

But even though directives are recognized as legal tools in every state, there is no standard protocol for practitioners to discuss this matter with their patients. Similarly, there is no standard language that guarantees a directive signed in New York, for instance, will be instantly recognized in another state. H.R. 3200, through section 1233, seeks to remedy the inconsistencies that exist. According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (bold mine)

Although advance directive policies are determined primarily at the state level, in 1991, Congress enacted the Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA). This act requires that all health care facilities receiving Medicare or Medicaid reimbursements must inform patients of their right to make choices about the treatment they receive and to prepare advance directives.

….

Despite the PSDA’s requirement that health care providers tell patients about advance directives, surprisingly few Americans actually complete these documents. A study published in 2002 estimated the overall prevalence of advance directives to be 15 to 20 percent in the general population. Rates of completion are also low in the populations that most need them. A 2002 study of nursing home residents found that only 20 percent of them had living wills, and 48 percent had DNR [Do Not Resuscitate] orders.

Further, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation graded states on how individual directive policies conformed with the aims of the Uniform Health Care Decisions Act, and only seven states received an “A”. Five states (AK, KS, PA, VT) received the lowest grade. California received only a “C” grade; Oklahoma, a “D”. What is wrong with educating people and encouraging them to take advantage of a tool that protects their interest, and what is wrong with seeking systemic consistency? Absolutely nothing.

So not only is the Right trying to fish a red herring in an attempt to turn health-care reform into a mandate to KILL, KILL, KILL “elderly people and the Boomer Generation,” they have fallaciously exploited settled law, relying on public ignorance, to craft the liberal agenda as just so much dehumanizing violence.

Educate yourself. Go get an Advance Health Care Directive of your own. Talk to your friends about it; share it with your family. And for the love of ethics, don’t buy for one nanosecond the fear-mongering vomiting from the mouths of the GOP, the insurance industry, and their pathetically ignorant lackey: the Christian Right.

For your convenience, below, in part, is the section (beginning page 425) the Right has its meta-panties  all in a bunch over:

SEC. 1233. ADVANCE CARE PLANNING CONSULTATION.

(a) MEDICARE.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 1861 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x) is amended—

….

(B) by adding at the end the following new subsection:

‘‘Advance Care Planning Consultation

‘‘(hhh)(1) Subject to paragraphs (3) and (4), the term ‘advance care planning consultation’ means a consultation between the individual and a practitioner described in paragraph (2) regarding advance care planning, if, subject to paragraph (3), the individual involved has

not had such a consultation within the last 5 years. Such consultation shall include the following:

‘‘(A) An explanation by the practitioner of advance care planning, including key questions and considerations, important steps, and suggested people to talk to.

‘‘(B) An explanation by the practitioner of advance directives, including living wills and durable powers of attorney, and their uses.

‘‘(C) An explanation by the practitioner of the role and responsibilities of a health care proxy.

‘‘(D) The provision by the practitioner of a list of national and State-specific resources to assist consumers and their families with advance care planning, including the national toll-free hotline, the advance care planning clearinghouses, and State legal service organizations (including those funded through the Older Americans Act of 1965).

‘‘(E) An explanation by the practitioner of the continuum of end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice, and benefits for such services and supports that are available under this title.

‘‘(F)(i) Subject to clause (ii), an explanation of orders regarding life sustaining treatment or similar orders, which shall include—

‘‘(I) the reasons why the development of such an order is beneficial to the individual and the individual’s family and the reasons why such an order should be updated periodically as the health of the individual changes;

‘‘(II) the information needed for an individual or legal surrogate to make informed decisions regarding the completion of such an order; and

‘‘(III) the identification of resources that an individual may use to determine the requirements of the State in which such individual resides so that the treatment wishes of that individual will be carried out if the individual is unable to communicate those wishes, including requirements regarding the designation of a surrogate decision maker (also known as a health care proxy).

‘‘(ii) The Secretary shall limit the requirement for explanations under clause (i) to consultations furnished in a State—

‘‘(I) in which all legal barriers have been addressed for enabling orders for life sustaining treatment to constitute a set of medical orders respected across all care settings; and

‘‘(II) that has in effect a program for orders for life sustaining treatment described in clause (iii).

‘‘(iii) A program for orders for life sustaining treatment for a States described in this clause is a program that—

‘‘(I) ensures such orders are standardized and uniquely identifiable throughout the State;

‘‘(II) distributes or makes accessible such orders to physicians and other health professionals that (acting within the scope of the professional’s authority under State law) may sign orders for life sustaining treatment;

‘‘(III) provides training for health care professionals across the continuum of care about the goals and use of orders for life sustaining treatment; and

‘‘(IV) is guided by a coalition of stakeholders includes representatives from emergency medical services, emergency department physicians or nurses, state long-term care association, state medical association, state surveyors, agency responsible for senior services, state department of health, state hospital association, home health association, state bar association, and state hospice association.