Medicare Regulation Revives End-of-Life Planning As Part of Obamacare

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...

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...

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....

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

'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...

'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...

A rush of deals in Congress follows 'shellacking'
(CNN) - The year in Washington began with Republicans complaining that President Obama and Democrats were ramming Health Care reform down their throats and ended with House Democrats complaining that Obama and Republicans were ramming a Tax Cut deal down their throats. In between, there was a major shift in power as Democrats saw their short-lived control of Congress end in a midterm "shellacking," as Obama called it, fueled by the Tea Party movement on the right and a distaste for politics as u...

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...

Medicare regulation revives end-of-life planning
WASHINGTON—A new health Regulation issued this month offers Medicare recipients voluntary end-of-life planning, which Democrats dropped from the monumental Health Care overhaul last year. The provision allows Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling to help beneficiaries deal with the complex and painful decisions families face when a loved one is approaching death. But the practice was heavily criticized by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and some other Republicans who have likened the co...

Medicare regulation revives end-of-life planning
WASHINGTON — A new health Regulation issued this month offers Medicare recipients voluntary end-of-life planning, which Democrats dropped from the monumental Health Care overhaul last year. The provision allows Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling to help beneficiaries deal with the complex and painful decisions families face when a loved one is approaching death. But the practice was heavily criticized by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and some other Republicans who have likened the...

Medicare regulation revives end-of-life planning
WASHINGTON — A new health Regulation issued this month offers Medicare recipients voluntary end-of-life planning, which Democrats dropped from the monumental Health Care overhaul last year. The provision allows Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling to help beneficiaries deal with the complex and painful decisions families face when a loved one is approaching death. But the practice was heavily criticized by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and some other Republicans who have likened the ...

Medicare regulation revives end-of-life planning (AP)
WASHINGTON – A new health Regulation issued this month offers Medicare recipients voluntary end-of-life planning, which Democrats dropped from the monumental Health Care overhaul last year. The provision allows Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling to help beneficiaries deal with the complex and painful decisions families face when a loved one is approaching death. But the practice was heavily criticized by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and some other Republicans who have likened the...

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...

Charles Krauthammer: Republicans Shouldnt Defund Obamacare
His argument is political in that he thinks Republicans will do themselves political harm by giving Democrats an excuse for why ObamaCare will have failed. They’ll be able to claim that the only reason the bill didn’t work was because Republicans wouldn’t let it work. His preferred solution? Let it be implemented, apparently, and let Americans grow to dislike it to the point where they demand its Repeal. I am skeptical about taking away the funds because what it will do, it wil...

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 ...

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”

For Palin there's no place like home...in a bad way
It's a well known fact that Sarah Palin is the most unpopular major political figure in the country...one thing that may be less well known is that one of the states where voters have the dimmest view of her is her own home state of Alaska. We've polled Palin's favorability in ten states over the last couple months. In Alaska just 33% of voters have a favorable opinion of her to 58% with a negative one. The only place where fewer voters see her positively than her own home state is dark blue M...

Charles Krauthammer Offends Mark Shields by Saying 'ObamaCare'
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: The biggest element in Debt is healthcare expenditures, Medicare and Medicaid, that’s where the money is, even more than Social Security. And the problem with ObamaCare is it freezes in place these huge expenditures. It does not cut costs. There’s going to be an additional half a Trillion in taxes devoted to the ObamaCare plan. And, it, it, it siphoned off whatever cuts you’re going to have in Medicare, half a trillion, for the new entitlements. So there is...

On Obamacare, and How to Defeat It
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. Will Sarah Palin Run for President?...

White House Pushing Back Against Revived Chatter About End-Of-Life Planning
The White House is denying that a new Medicare Regulation revives language dropped from the Health Care Reform Bill that covered voluntary end-of-life planning sessions between doctors and patients. The policy was removed from the Health Care bill after Republicans and right-wing opponents of the bill construed the provision as creating "Death Panels" for old people. The New York Times reported yesterday that beginning January 1st: Under the new policy, outlined in a Medicare regulation, the...