Hypocrisy Running Rampant . . .(with update)
As Lee Fang at Think Progress notes, apparently Sarah Palin was for so-called “death panels” before she was against them. OK, not actual death panels. I mean, who in their right minds would think a provision to allow Medicare to pay for doctors consulting with patients about End of Life Directives (aka Advance Directives or Living Wills) is some kind of “death panel”, sillies? Well, Sarah Palin said she thinks so. In fact she reiterated her stance today and even provided loads of actual footnotes!
Sarah, Sarah. How many times are you gonna do this to us?
However, on April 16th 2008, then Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed some of the same end of life counseling she now decries as a form of euthanasia. In a proclamation announcing “Healthcare Decisions Day,” Palin urged public facilities to provide better information about advance directives, and made it clear that it is critical for seniors to be informed of such options:
WHEREAS, Healthcare Decisions Day is designed to raise public awareness of the need to plan ahead for healthcare decisions, related to end of life care and medical decision-making whenever patients are unable to speak for themselves and to encourage the specific use of advance directives to communicate these important healthcare decisions. [...]
WHEREAS, one of the principal goals of Healthcare Decisions Day is to encourage hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, continuing care retirement communities, and hospices to participate in a statewide effort to provide clear and consistent information to the public about advance directives, as well as to encourage medical professionals and lawyers to volunteer their time and efforts to improve public knowledge and increase the number of Alaska’s citizens with advance directives.
WHEREAS, the Foundation for End of Life Care in Juneau, Alaska, and other organizations throughout the United States have endorsed this event and are committed to educating the public about the importance of discussing healthcare choices and executing advance directives.
Though this proclamation is now deleted from the Alaska governor’s website, it shows that Palin’s current fear-mongering is purely political.
Dang, Sarah, you said all this stuff about “death panels” and all just for political reasons? Who could have guessed. And you’re not the only one either.
Anyone remember Newt Gingrich arguing on “This Week” a few days back that the “death panels” are very likely to be true because, well, the bill authorizes lots of panels and, you know, people in government and “certain” doctors just like euthanasia and all, so IT’S COMING!!
Well, not long before that, April of this year to be exact, Matt Taibbi points out that Mr. Disgraced-Ex-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was all over the “end-of-life best practice system” being practiced at a hospital system in LaCrosse, Wisconsin:
More than 20 percent of all Medicare spending occurs in the last two months of life. Gundersen Lutheran Health System in La Crosse, Wisconsin has developed a successful end-of-life, best practice that combines: 1) community-wide advance care planning, where 90 percent of patients have advance directives; 2) hospice and palliative care; and 3) coordination of services through an electronic medical record. The Gundersen approach empowers patients and families to control and direct their care. The Dartmouth Health Atlas has documented that Gundersen delivers care at a 30 percent lower rate than the national average ($18,359 versus $25,860). If Gundersen’s approach was used to care for the approximately 4.5 million Medicare beneficiaries who die every year, Medicare could save more than $33 billion a year.
Gingrich had also effusively praised the LaCrosse system to PBS a few months prior.
As Taibbi so eloquently puts it:
Well, what happens when suddenly the Republican party decides it wants to scare the shit out of a bunch of old people by telling them the new health care bill is going to include a provision in which “death panels” ask them “when they want to die”? Now all of the sudden Gingrich is violently against the same programs he was so windily praising earlier this year.
And Sarah Palin has now gone from stating that Advance Directives are critical for seniors wanting to exercise control over end of life options, to terming doctors who would provide the counseling and assistance to people wishing to enact such directives “death panels”.
We’ve also got Senator Johnny Isakson who, in an interview with Ezra Klein only a few days ago specifically called out the “death panels” assertions as “nuts” and who has introduced bills in the past which would allow for Medicare funding of end-of-life counseling with a doctor, now vehemently back-pedaling at the suggestion that he has anything to do with the current bills’ provisions and that what he has proposed in the past was WAY different from any of this. Well, it was mostly different in the way Medicare would fund the counseling but otherwise that’s about it.
Finally, Senator Chuck Grassley is back pedaling so far from the idea that he’s basically saying end-of-life counseling should be left up to Jesus:
“I think the best thing to do is if you want people to think about the end of life, number one, Jesus Christ is the place to start, and after that, in the physical life, as opposed to your eternal life, it ought to be done within the family and considered a religious and ethical issue and not something that politicians deal with,” he said.
Chuck, Chuck, Chuck. It’s not being proposed that the politicians have anything at all to do with the counseling. They just make it possible for Medicare to pay the doctor for the counseling. But you know that. Every one of these people know perfectly good and well that Final Directives, Living Wills, whatever you want to call them, are good things. Sensible, smart things to have. They allow the patient to make choices for end of life care while they are still competent. Sarah knows that. Newt knows that. Chuck and Johnny know that. All of this asshattery they are currently promulgating is purely hypocritical BS designed solely for the purpose of working up the base and bringing Obama down.
So fine. Take the provisions out. If you ask me, this is one of the least important pieces of the whole package. There are plenty of alternatives to receiving counseling for a Final Directive/Living will outside the doctor’s office. Virtually all attorneys will talk to you about these issues and draft a living will at the same time they draw up a regular will. Many hospitals also routinely ask people to consider these issues and draft a Directive when they check in for any procedure. (It’s just common sense after all). So dump it from the reform bill. Take the wind out of some sails. “You don’t want us to off Grandma and Trig? Fine. We won’t.”
I may sound facetious but I’m really very serious. There are so many egregious problems that we need health care reform to solve. I said this on a thread a few days ago and I’ll say it again. At my age (and no, don’t ask what that is but old enough) I have several friends who have battled cancer or are dealing with health issues such as diabetes or heart disease. These people live in fear of losing their jobs because they could never get insurance again. And many of them had to fight tooth and nail with their insurance companies just to get the coverage they contracted for. Many have also seen their premiums skyrocket because they became ill.
As has been pointed out in many other places, we have rationing of health care already. And it’s rationed on the basis of how good your benefits are at your job and how much money you have if you’re paying for the insurance on your own. Health care is treated as a commodity for sale in this country and not as a necessary service.
So if we have to jettison the death panels to get this thing passed, let’s do it.
UPDATE Surprise, surprise. Amy Sullivan at Swampland is pointing out that Senator Chuck “Leave Advance Directives to Jesus” Grassley actually voted for virtually an identical provision enabling Medicare to pay for end of life counseling that was included in the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill. Only difference? The prior bill allows Medicare to pay for counseling of terminally ill patients while the bill being proposed would allow any seniors receiving Medicare to avail themselves of the counseling and have Medicare pay for it. Which just makes sense since nobody knows when they might suffer a stroke or heart attack (or get hit by a bus for that matter).
h/t to Allan in the comments.
Posted by marindenver on 08/13/09 at 07:03 PM • Permalink
Categories: Politics • Barack Obama • Editorials • Health Care • Nutters • Skull Hampers •
Share this post: 
