One of the most vocal opponents was former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who warned that the Obamacare provisions that encouraged doctors to provide "voluntary" end-of-life counseling and planning could quickly turn into federal mandates – mandates that may eventually lead to benefit cuts as bureaucrats decided that spending scarce tax dollars on the elderly was not efficient.
Well, those provisions have quietly been resurrected by the Obama administration and, according to the Associated Press, they could take effect by January 1.
The paper noted:
Six years after end-of-life planning nearly derailed development of the Affordable Care Act amid charges of "death panels," the Obama administration has revived a proposal to reimburse physicians for talking with their Medicare patients about how patients want to be cared for as they near death.
The proposal, contained in a large set of Medicare regulations unveiled Wednesday, comes amid growing public discussion about the need for medical care that better reflects patients' wishes as they get older.
But it's not just the Obama administration advocating for this. A couple of months ago, GOP presidential contender and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush recommended essentially the same thing. He suggested that Medicare patients should sign an advanced directive spelling out the level of care they wanted should they someday become incapacitated.
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Big Brother wants to control ALL health care decisions
Public policy wonks and some lawmakers noted that before Palin made such a big deal of the so-called panels, there was bipartisan support for end-of-life counseling. And now, some believe that the controversy has ended, as well as the stigma Palin associated with the counseling.
"I think society's going to get over it this time and see the good in it," Dr. Joe Rotella, chief medical officer of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, told theAssociated Press. "It's really about living in the way that means the most to you to the last moments of your life."
All of that may very well be true, but Palin's assertion, and the assertion of others – that an authoritarian government could, at some point in the future, use today's consultation process as springboard to restricting benefits in the future – is entirely plausible.
For confirmation, consider what is taking place in Great Britain, where officials have, for years, limited benefit payments from the country's universal National Health Service because funds are tight and needs are great, resulting in health care rationing.
Push for more health care control in D.C.
As reported by PRI in 2010:
Today, 95 percent of Britons get their care through the government-run program. In order to provide care to everyone, the government says it must place limits on the care it provides. It must ration.
"We have a limited budget for health care, voted by Parliament every year, and we have to live within our means," said Michael Rawlins, chairman of a government agency called the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
There are American advocates for rationing, as well. Peter Singer, a professor of bioethics at Princeton University, wrote a lengthy piece for The New York Times (see here) stressing that Americans should also be subject to healthcare rationing (even if they can pay for procedures themselves). ""
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