WASHINGTON – It's alive. The Medicare end-of-life planning provision that 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said was tantamount to "death panels" for seniors is staying in the latest Democratic health care bill unveiled Thursday.
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.
I mean not that I'm surprised. Are you?
Link
And in case you think Palin was a little over heated, let us revisit what Ezekiel Emanuel, Obama's health care advisor, had to say about such things.
This civic republican or deliberative democratic conception of the good provides both procedural and substantive insights for developing a just alloca- tion of health care resources. Procedurally, it suggests the need for public forums to deliberate about which health services should be considered basic and should be socially guaranteed.
For my slower readers, that means you Lefties, that means a group of people deciding what health care services people should get. Let's pursue what he meant.
Substantively, it suggests services that promote the continuation of the polity-those that ensure healthy future genera- tions, ensure development of practical reasoning skills, and ensure full and active participation by citizens in public deliberations-are to be socially guaranteed as basic..
Conversely, services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed.
Again for my Lefte readers, that means no disabled folks should apply.
An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia. A less obvious example Is is guaranteeing neuropsychological services to ensure children with learning disabilities can read and learn to reason.
Link
He means it boys and girls. Not for himself, of course, but for the "others." The children that can offer nothing but love and being able to dress themselves by age 9. The mother that remembers your Senior Prom but not seeing you yesterday.
Of course you have a duty to the state. You exist only to serve the state. Love the state. Pay no attention to the ovens being built.
Hat tip to Buffy!
On Twitter I am Lesabre1
