Medicare physicians could be paid for ‘End of Life’ chats

This may seem an unimportant topic. But it is. The death panels rise again. Even though Congress pushed back against it. Time and again. But this administration will not be dissuaded. First let me remind you of an earlier post:

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 theMid-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

Now that Obama is in his waning days, it is full throttle ahead.

The Obama administration is considering new rules that would pay Medicare doctors to discuss end-of-life options for their patients, reviving an issue that has historically caused an uproar from the GOP.

A provision to compensate doctors for these consultations was included in early versions of ObamaCare but had been withheld after then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) claimed that “death panels” would deprive seniors of healthcare.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) tried again in 2010, but was forced to roll back its plans because of political pressure. tHE hILL

Recall this little number from the architect of Obamacare?

Embattled MIT professor Jonathan Gruber has not only gotten in trouble for bragging about helping President Obama put one over on the American people with Obamacare, he’s also been uncovered as an abortion advocate—but not a run-of-the-mill advocate of “women’s rights.”

No, Gruber’s abortion advocacy is of a particularly pungent eugenics variety. He’s on record repeatedly making the case from social science that abortion is a “social good” because it reduces the number of “marginal children,” by which he means urban poor—those he says can be counted on to commit crimes if they were ever born.

Gruber co-authored a paper during the Clinton years which argued that legal abortion had saved the U.S. taxpayer upwards of $14 billion in welfare benefits and that it also lowered crime.

Keep reading…

Here in the clip, Gruber is questioned as to whether older folks as similar to abortion candidates.