Kidney Patients told to accept death, forgo Dialysis

A comment is receving a lot of attention on our post: Mark Levin: A Neurosurgeon calls in about death panels.

“I am a nurse in a dialysis unit where we have multiple patients over 65. What we are hearing is any person over 65 years old or diabetic will not “qualify” for dialysis. (dialysis is where a person’s kidneys have failed and they have 3 times a week dialysis to “clean” their blood and remove fluid since that patient doesn’t urinate anymore). This is considered life support yet some of our patients continue to live full lives with full time jobs. We have heard this is what is done in China, Japan and some European countries. We have to stop this death panel”!! Yes Virginia, there are Death Panels. Sarah was right.

From: Kidney Patients being told to accept death and forgo dialysis

As they calmly say:

“It was meant to keep young and middle-aged people alive and productive”.

So of course if you are no longer productive, you are really of no use to the Progressive Society. So here tis a piece from the NY Times including the header.

Asking Kidney Patients to Forgo a Free Lifeline

Kidney specialists are pushing doctors to be more forthright with elderly people who have other serious medical conditions, to tell the patients that even though they are entitled to dialysis, they may want to decline such treatment and enter a hospice instead. In the end, it is always the patient’s choice. But for how much longer?

One idea, promoted by leading specialists, is to change the way doctors refer to the decision to forgo dialysis. Instead of saying that a patient is withdrawing from dialysis or agreeing not to start it, these specialists say the patient has chosen “medical management without dialysis.”“That is the preferred term,” said Nancy Armistead, executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Renal Coalition, a Medicare contractor that collects data and patient grievances.

Of all the terrible chronic diseases, only one —end-stage kidney disease — gets special treatment by the federal government. A law passed by Congress 39 years ago provides nearly free care to almost all patients whose kidneys have failed, regardless of their age or ability to pay.

But the law has had unintended consequences, kidney experts say. It was meant to keep young and middle-aged people alive and productive. Instead, many of the patients who take advantage of the law are old and have other medical problems, often suffering through dialysis as a replacement for their failed kidneys but not living long because the other chronic diseases kill them. Full story: New York Times

We will change the way we pay for health care – not by procedure or the number of days spent in a hospital, but with new incentives for doctors and hospitals to prevent injuries and improve results. . . . If we’re wrong, and Medicare costs rise faster than we expect, this approach will give the independent commission the authority to make additional savings by further improving Medicare,” Obama said

This is what the Progressives have been and are all about.