White House Tries To Quiet Revived Talk Of Death Panels

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

End-of-life counseling part of new Medicare policy
The New York Times reported over the weekend that a provision of Health Care reform Legislation that was abandoned after it became the focus of conservative outrage is making a return, this time as part of a new policy outlined in a Medicare Regulation. Voluntary counseling on end-of-life decisions was attacked by conservative pundits and politicians throughout the debate over Health Care reform, eventually labeled as “Death Panels.” The service would require Medicare to pay for end-...

'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...

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...

North Carolina editorial roundup
If you're over 65 and want to consult with your doctor about which life-prolonging medical treatments you'd want or not want if you were incapacitated and dying, should Medicare pay your doctor for offering that medical advice? If you've ever watched a spouse, son or daughter struggle with decisions about what an aging, comatose or terminally ill patient would want — feeding tube? ventilator? resuscitation? — then you know the importance of the patient himself or herself thinking thr...

'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...

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 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...

White House attempts to clarify President Obama's Michael Vick remarks
Today one tweet from one Sports Illustrated reporter created a Controversy that the White House was forced to respond through a statement.  The tweet in question came from Peter King of Sports Illustrated.  King tweeted, "Yes, Obama called Eagle owner Jeffrey Lurie to praise the Eagles for giving Vick a chance. Said too many Prisoners never get fair 2d chance." The tweet was in reference to an earlier interview King had given in which he mentioned that President Obama had expressed gra...

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...

THE HILL: White House Tries To Smother New Death Panel Talk. Get that pillow off of my face!
THE HILL: White House Tries To Smother New “Death Panel” Talk. Get that pillow off of my face! ...

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”

Tuesday Open Thread
Good Morning. As you go through your day, don’t forget JJP. Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too. And always, have a peaceful day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. House Republicans are turning to old friends on K Street to lead their legislative attempts to Repeal the new Health Care law. Three recently hired Republican aides — two set to work in senior position...

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...

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...

Ten most memorable political quotations of 2010
You had to see it to believe it. From a Delaware Senate Candidate's witchcraft talk to Sarah Palin's word-crafting skill, 2010 was a year of classic political quotations. Don't believe it? We challenge you to refudiate it. Here are ten of the most memorable political utterances of the past year: "I'd rather be a really good one-term President than a mediocre two-term President." -- President Obama The president pledged to press ahead with health-care reform, despite polls showing that most Am...

White House Statement on Russian Judge
Apparently, courts in Russia aren't independent and Putin wanted Khodorkovsky in Prison. Statement by the Press Secretary, 12/27/2010 We are deeply concerned that a Russian judge today has indicated that for a second time Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev will be convicted. We are troubled by the allegations of serious due process violations, and what appears to be an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends. The apparent selective application of the law to these individuals und...

White House Questions Khodorkovsky and Lebedev Convictions
Gibbs reprimands Russian judiciary for "what appears to be an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends" in Monday statement. We are deeply concerned that a Russian judge today has indicated that for a second time Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev will be convicted. We are troubled by the allegations of serious Due Process violations, and what appears to be an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends. The apparent selective application of the law to these individ...

Video: Charles Krauthammer Offends PBS 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...

Let's hope that 78% of those who voted below are DEAD WRONG
Is the NYT right, are these "Death Panels?" Read the blog entry "death panels" and post your view of the article...and the Controversy.  Also, feel free to comment about the national ... ...

Open thread...
Is the NYT right, are these "Death Panels?" Read the blog entry "death panels" and post your view of the article...and the Controversy.  Also, feel free to comment about the national ... ...