Who Is Against People Making Their Own Health Care Choices?
Opponents of health care reform are eager to kill legislation and fear is their favorite weapon. Their newest scare tactic, oddly, is the threat that patients will be able to make choices about the end of their lives. For over a decade, Compassion & Choices has been improving care and advocating for patient choice at the end of life (most Americans agree that’s a good thing). Writers in the Wall Street Journal and Forbes Magazine, a barrage of comment from bloggers in opposition and statements from GOP leaders all condemn a small section in HR 3200. That provision provides Medicare reimbursement for doctors to talk with their patients about their wishes for end-of-life treatments like feeding tubes and artificial ventilators. Commentators tell a scary story about how these conversations are “required every five years” and will “push seniors” toward a decision to shorten life. These claims are false. The only thing required is that Medicare reimburse, once in a five-year span, doctors w
