Medicare regulation revives end-of-life planning

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...

Death is too important a subject to be left to the mercy of rampaging, reality-defying numbskulls
What was old is new again: Since the "Death Panels" lies are back, it seems only appropriate to bring back this offering by the great R. J. Matson from last year's Holiday Season. by Ken I know we're supposed to make nice to those poor misunderstood Teabaggers, and bow before the legitimacy of their grievances. It's just kind of hard when, besotted by their newfound power, they're off on a screaming rampage, wildly wielding their weapons of psychotic destruction against every vestige of realit...

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...

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 ...

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...

Sneaking It In
Human Events: Bureaucrats Secretly Implement ObamaCare by Tony Lee 12/27/2010 When ObamaCare passed in the partisan manner in which it did, the liberal establishment and its ever growing army of pipsqueak transcribers in the mainstream media said ObamaCare’s passage would be a boon for Democrats and mocked those like Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli who spoke out against ObamaCare and called the measure Unconstitutional, particularly the Individual Mandate requirement that would com...

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 ...

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”

Obamacare and Soft Tyranny [Reader Post]
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its Victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. To great derision, Sarah Palin was critical of ObamaCare in August of 2009 in Face...

Medicare will cover advance care planningGood for Democrats and for Republicans, too
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 not mention advance care planning, the Obama Administration has been able to achieve its policy goal through the Regulation-writing process, a strategy that could become more prevalent in the next two years as the president deals wit...

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 firestorm these death...

Death Panels Regulation Begins Obamas Rule by Fiat
Ben Johnson, FloydReports.com In a foretaste of outrages to come, the Obama Administration managed to sneak out a federal Regulation paying doctors to provide “end of life counseling” to those covered by ObamaCare. The Medicare rule, which Congress never voted on, may encourage thousands to forego lifesaving treatment. This move is a voluntary precursor to the inevitable Rationing engendered by Socialized Medicine. Many conservative media outlets have objected to the pro-death aspe...

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...

White House Tries To Quiet Revived Talk Of Death Panels
The Hill: The Obama Administration is trying to quiet talk about so-called “Death Panels” after The New York Times reported Sunday that a new Medicare Regulation includes incentives for end-of-life-care planning. The Medicare policy will pay doctors for holding end-of-life-care discussions with patients, according to the Times. A similar provision was dropped from the new Healthcare Reform law after Republicans accused the administration of withholding care from the sick, elderly and disab...

Before Normalcy
I've been annoyed about today's Ross Douthat's column all day, so I suppose I should write something about it. Here's the paragraph that annoyed me: The fantasy was the idea that Barack Obama, a one-term senator with an appealing biography and a silver tongue, would turn out to be Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Robert F. Kennedy and Mahatma Gandhi all rolled into one. This fantasy inspired a wave of 1960s-style enthusiasm, an unsettling personality cult (that “Yes We Can” video full of ...

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

Rep.-Elect Walsh Joins Just Four Other Republicans In Forgoing Government Health Care For Themselves
© Unknown Responding to Rep.-elect Andy Harris' (R-MD) hypocritical demand for government-sponsored health coverage last month, Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) circulated a letter among his colleagues calling on Harris and other members of Congress who want to Repeal President Obama's Health Care law to forgo their own government Health Care plans. At least four GOP congressmen have already announced they will turn down their congressional benefits, and a recent poll found that a majority America...

Before Normalcy
I've been annoyed about today's Ross Douthat's column all day, so I suppose I should write something about it. Here's the paragraph that annoyed me: The fantasy was the idea that Barack Obama, a one-term senator with an appealing biography and a silver tongue, would turn out to be Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Robert F. Kennedy and Mahatma Gandhi all rolled into one. This fantasy inspired a wave of 1960s-style enthusiasm, an unsettling personality cult (that “Yes We Can” video full of...

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...

Medicare Regulation Revives End-of-Life Planning As Part of Obamacare
Monday, December 27, 2010 By Staff, Associated Press Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, rests her arm on an autographed copy of the Democrats’ Health Care bill after it passed the House on Sunday, March 21, 2010. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Washington (AP) - A new health Regulation issued this month offers Medicare recipients voluntary end-of-life planning, which Democrats dropped -- under pressure -- from their Health Care overhaul last year. The provision allows Medicare to pay for voluntary...

Ross Douthat Finally Finds Someone He Wants To Screw
Verbatim Ross Douthat: But when it comes to the hard challenges ahead, comity won’t be enough. Real courage is required as well. And this month’s outbreak of Bipartisanship was conspicuously yellow-bellied. Republicans and Democrats came together to cut taxes, raise spending, and give free Health Care to the First Responders on 9/11. They indulged, in other words, in the kind of easy, profligate “moderation” that’s done as much damage to the country over the years as the ideo

Ms. Alaska
Add this piece to the ravenous media fawn that it is itself decrying, that would be the obsessive and at times goofy media attention the former Governor from Alaska has racked up in the last two years—especially in the months since Sarah Palin, in fact, early-departed the very gubernatorial position that led to her assault on our collective psyche. Other than the daily Palin onslaught what, you might ask, is prompting such a bah-humbug lament, especially at a time of the year when we sho...

Quote of the Day
‎”Sarah Palin, part-time Governor of Alaska, is angry because Michele Obama is encouraging kids to eat healthy. Sarah Palin believes the government shouldn’t tell us what to do. Sarah Palin believes she should tell us what to do.” -David Letterman ...

Poll: Obama and Hillary Clinton Are Most Admired
From the Associated Press : For the third straight year, President Barack Obama ranks as the man most admired by people living in the U.S. The annual USA Today-Gallup poll, released Monday, finds that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is the most admired woman for the ninth year in a row. Clinton edges out former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and TV host Oprah Winfrey, as she did last year. The poll asks respondents to name the man, and the woman, living in any part of the world, they admir...

Ronnie Shows: Obama Can Win by Securing the Middle
Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer recently dubbed Barack Obama the "comeback kid," because of the President's resurgence after the brutal Midterm Elections. In just the last few weeks, despite being handed historic losses in the House of Representatives, the President has helped usher in a great deal of important Legislation, including one of his campaign pledges to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," With the leadership of the President, the Lame Duck session of Congress wasn't lame at all....