Berwick and Sebelius sneak end-of-life counseling incentives in through regulation

Obama Brings Back End of Life Counseling
When it was discovered that ObamaCare included funding for end of life counseling, Controversy erupted and that language had to be stripped from the bill Obama eventually signed. So, how is it that end of life counseling is now being funded by the Federal Government? Through Regulation, of course. The New York Times reported that this is the way President Obama will operate for the next two years. The final version of the Health Care Legislation, signed into law by President Obama in March, a...

Backdoor Death Panels?
When the Health Care overhaul was stumbling its way through Congress early this year, Sarah Palin was excoriated by Democrats for suggesting that the nascent law included “Death Panels” for the elderly in order to save costs of treating the oldest and Most Expensive patients. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Palin wrote that Obama had asked Congress to create an independent Medicare Advisory Council--an unaccountable group of experts charged with containing Medicare costs. She p...

New Medicare regulation brings back end-of-life consultations
The New York Times reported Sunday that under a new Medicare Regulation, doctors will receive payment for advising patients on end-of-life care.   Elderly patients may be advised to adopt so-called "advance directives" to forgo life-sustaining treatment. During the heated debate over the new Health Care law, the idea of limiting Health Care to the elderly sparked Controversy.  Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin referred to the consultations as "Death Panels", and Democrats removed...

Sneaking end-of-life consultations into Obamacare
Jae C. Hon/AP Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made the term"Death Panels"famous during the debate over ObamaCare last year. A new Regulation has revived the debate. During the debate over ObamaCare last year, Controversy erupted over a Medicare provision related to end-of-life consultations with doctors. Following well-publicized criticism from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin concerning government "death panels," the provision was promptly dropped. But now the New York Times reports that it has be...

All Our Palms Are Blinking Red
All Our Palms Are Blinking RedSunday, December 26th, 2010 …and LastDay is coming for us, here in the City of Domes. Soon we will participate in Carousel, and reach Sanctuary. If you try to run, the Sandmen will come for you and then you will not find Sanctuary. The fact that such a Controversial change was kept quiet for so long, and that the Obama Administration took steps to keep it quiet, is most troublesome of all. What are we talking about? The End-Of-Life counseling that was part o...

The future of health care in the Tampa Bay Area
Beginning on January 1, 2011 the effects of the initial policy implementations of the Health Care Reform Act will be felt by both physicians and their patients. In speaking with family physicians, general practitioners and specialists in the Tampa Bay area, many have decided that they will retire or find another job prior to January 1, 2013, when they must begin to confer with the government in deciding your care or course of treatment. With over thirty million people being added to the health c...

Berwick Sets Up Death Panels By Fiat
"If they would rather die they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population." -- Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol Sarah Palin was right. John Boehner -- make that Speaker-elect of the House John Boehner -- was right. While Americans were busy celebrating with family and friends and presumably not paying attention to the news, the New York Times, in a story ironically dated Christmas Day -- a holiday celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace -- reported the foll...

Obama's stealth end-of-life regulation: Palin's 'death panels' made Dems do it
"If you can't legislate it, enforce it," says Tucker Carlson, sitting in for Sean Hannity on Fox , as he slammed the Obama Administration for dishonesty - specifically  sneaking back into ObamaCare  what Sarah Palin labeled  the 'Death Panel's'" end-of-life planning. At that time, Sarah Palin warned of a slippery slope to euthanasia for the elderly, the sick and the disabled and America's response echoed Palin's "Not no, but hell no!".  Now it's back. As per the New York Time...

White House May Reintroduce 'Death Panels'
The Obama Administration has restored one of the most Controversial provisions of the new Health Care law. The New York Times reported the new policy will let the government pay doctors for end-of-life counseling. That counseling could include doctors discouraging patients from trying everything medically possible that might keep them alive. "The infamous Section 1233 is still alive and kicking," said Elizabeth Wickham, Executive Director of LifeTree, a pro-life Christian educational ministry....

Media amnesia on "death panels" myth
One of the most frustrating aspects of the media's coverage of politics is the way they treat deceptive factual claims. As I've often pointed out, these claims are often reported in a "he said," "she said" format that provides readers with no indication that the statement in question is misleading or false. And even when reporters do characterize these statements accurately, it rarely creates a lasting precedent within their news organization. Instead, these outlets typically suffer a sort of ...

Federal Government Manages Finances So Badly They Cant Be Audited
The U.S. Government Accountability Office said it could not render an opinion on the 2010 consolidated Financial Statements of the Federal Government, because of widespread material Internal Control weaknesses, significant uncertainties, and other limitations. “Even though significant progress has been made since the enactment of key financial management reforms in the 1990s, our report on the U.S. government’s consolidated financial statement illustrates that much work remains to be...

Republican Congressman-Elect: Obamacare Rationing Is Being Hidden From The Public
Over the holiday, when the nation was busy with friends, family and celebration, the Obama Administration quietly broke news of a new Regulation to implement a part of ObamaCare that Congress specifically did not authorize. Specifically, a provision that would have the government paying doctors to convince patients not to seek extraordinary end-of-life treatment. “The longer this goes unnoticed, the better our chances of keeping it,” said Democrat Rep. Blumenauer from Oregon. Now Con...

Fox News Tries To Rehabilitate Palins Discredited Death Panels Smear
As The New York Times reported yesterday, the Obama Administration has enacted Medicare Regulations to include an end-of-life planning provision similar to one struck out of the Health Care Reform Bill after Sarah Palin “touched off a political storm over ‘Death Panels.’” Palin’s “death panels” accusation wasn’t just a lie, it was PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year for 2009. But good ol’ Fox News resuscitated the lie and gave it new life by j...

Twitter roundup
BrendanNyhan Dec 28, 2010 at 1:01pm As predicted (https://j.mp/c9Fe3v), overemphasis on Obama staff as cause of/solution to structural political problems https://j.mp/gYxThi Blaming staff for structural problems - Brendan Nyhan Back in January, I predicted a rash of process-based explanations of President Obama's declining political fortunes in 2010: During the next eleven months, it will become increasingly obvious th... Obama's insular White House worries his allies - latimes.com Bren...

Obama Creates Death Panels Rejected By Congress
The Obama Administration has secretly crafted a new policy to implement the contentious Death Panels that Congress dropped under immense public pressure from Legislation to take over the nation’s Healthcare System. Under Regulations that will take effect in January, the administration will offer medical professionals monetary incentives to accelerate “end of life care,” which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment. Kept quiet by the administration and

'Death panels' controversy: Is Obama avoiding Congress?
President Obama talks with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in the Oval Office Nov. 4. Health and Human Services has included expanded 'voluntary advance care planning' consultations in the rules it is writing for the health-care reform law. Critics deride the idea as 'Death Panels.' In a move that could resuscitate the partisan battle over what Sarah Palin dubbed "death panels," the Obama Administration is set to implement a Controversial federal health-care provi...

The Sunbird
Doctors will soon be able to receive Medicare payments for end-of-life planning. The new rule says Medicare will cover “voluntary advance care planning,” to discuss end-of-life treatment, as part of the annual visit. Under the rule, doctors can provide information to patients on how to prepare an “advance directive,” stating how aggressively they wish to be treated if they are so sick that they cannot make Health Care decisions for themselves. This is of course completel...

'Death panels' controversy: Is Obama avoiding Congress? (The Christian Science Monitor)
Washington – In a move that could resuscitate the partisan battle over what Sarah Palin dubbed "Death Panels," the Obama Administration is set to implement a Controversial federal health-care provision by executive authority. The new rule would pay doctors to consult with Medicare patients who want voluntary counseling about health-care options in the case of terminal illness. The Obama Administration casts the change as minor, saying that these are common-sense discussions t...

This Week's Health Industry News
With the Congress in adjournment and many business people taking off the time between holidays, we do not expect any substantive health industry news this week. But we could be surprised. Take, for instance, the news reported Sunday by our colleague Robert Pear in Washington. The Obama Administration, through an administrative rule, is resurrecting the notion of end-of-life planning services for older Americans — the same sort of planning that was falsely characterized as “Death Panels”

Surprise! End-of-life advisory incentives return through regulation
Better get used to this process, because it’s how President Obama will be pushing his agenda on all fronts.  The New York Times reports today that the White House will create incentives for doctors to discuss “options” for end of life care through Regulation, after Congress removed the incentives from ObamaCare: 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 adva...

Obama administration will enact end-of-life planning for Medicare
In a nod to sanity, the Obama Administration will pay doctors for end-of-life planning advice provided to Medicare patients, a provision dropped from the Affordable Care Act after the "Death Panel" lies were allowed to rule the day. Under the rule, doctors can provide information to patients on how to prepare an “advance directive,” stating how aggressively they wish to be treated if they are so sick that they cannot make Health Care decisions for themselves. While the new law does ...

President Gets Around Annoying Voters, Instills Death Panels By Regulation
Some of you may have missed this story since it was published on the day after Christmas (and a Sunday at that), but Obama’s Death Panels are back, this time via the president’s fiat regulatory powers. Since it was easy to have missed, I’ve decided to post the story today (Monday) so that more people might see it now that Christmas and the weekend both are over. You might recall the end of life care policies that were once in ObamaCare. You might also remember the political fir...

Return of the mythical death panels?
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. 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...

Annual check
Will 2010 be viewed as a pivotal year for health? Bar a few weeks in the summer when ministers hit the headlines for some plain talking about Obesity and TV chef Jamie Oliver, 2010 for health and social care will probably be best remembered for one thing - money. It was the year when the whole sector in England became obsessed with how much there would be, where it was coming from and who was going to spend it. The year kicked-off with - unusually - social care hogging the headlines. By the end ...

Injustice for All: Obama's Immigration Agenda
-- spied more aggressively than ever on Americans; -- destroyed decades of hard won Labor Rights; -- targeted Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid for erosion and elimination; -- further institutionalized public wealth transfers to super-rich elites who already have too much; -- commodified public education; -- subverted Net Neutrality; -- targeted Whistleblowers, dissenters, Muslims, and environmental and Animal Rights Activists as Terrorists; -- militarized Haiti, engineered fraudulent ele...