"If you have another heart attack and your heart stops beating, would you want us to try to restart it? Do you want to go on a breathing machine for the rest of your life? When the time comes, do you want us to use technology to try and delay your death?"--- Dr. Maria J. Silveira via NYT article.The New York Times reports that the end-of-life planning portion of Obamacare which was dropped from the health care bill when a firestorm was created after Sarah Palin pointed out the likelihood of "Death Panels" has been reinstated by Barack Obama using regulation starting January 1, 2011.
When a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning touched off a political storm over “death panels,” Democrats dropped it from legislation to overhaul the health care system. But the Obama administration will achieve the same goal by regulation, starting Jan. 1.
Under the new policy, outlined in a Medicare regulation, the government will pay doctors who advise patients on options for end-of-life care, which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment.
Supporters have also deliberately tried to keep it quiet and out of the news for fear of the public's reaction:
Congressional supporters of the new policy, though pleased, have kept quiet. They fear provoking another furor like the one in 2009 when Republicans seized on the idea of end-of-life counseling to argue that the Democrats’ bill would allow the government to cut off care for the critically ill.
The final version of the health care legislation, signed into law by President Obama in March, authorized Medicare coverage of yearly physical examinations, or wellness visits. The new rule says Medicare will cover “voluntary advance care planning,” to discuss end-of-life treatment, as part of the annual visit.
More evidence of that comes from emails from Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, the author of the original end-of-life proposal which included the following statements "While we are very happy with the result, we won’t be shouting it from the rooftops because we aren’t out of the woods yet." ~~~ "This regulation could be modified or reversed, especially if Republican leaders try to use this small provision to perpetuate the ‘death panel’ myth." ~~~~ "We would ask that you not broadcast this accomplishment out to any of your lists, even if they are ‘supporters’ — e-mails can too easily be forwarded. Thus far, it seems that no press or blogs have discovered it, but we will be keeping a close watch and may be calling on you if we need a rapid, targeted response. The longer this goes unnoticed, the better our chances of keeping it."
The underhanded sneakiness of Barack Obama, adding this back in, by regulation, after such a large public outcry against it, should be surprising, but it isn't given that he and the Democratically controlled Congress all passed Obamacare against the opposition of the majority of Americans to begin with, shows that Obama does not care one iota for the public's opinion and will force his agenda down American's throats as long as he can get away with it.
The House of Representatives will be controlled by the GOP starting in January and they will control the purse strings and since repeal of the entire obamacare bill is impossible as long as the Senate is run by Harry Reid and Democrats (although much less control now after the midterm elections) and the White House is controlled by Barack Obama who would veto any such total repeal, the GOP in the House must defund every portion of Obamacare they can until the political situation changes to the point where we can undo Obamacare totally.
Choke it, starve it, defund it GOP... we expect it, we demand it and we are watching to make sure you make it happen.
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