"Death Panel" Scare Tactic May Backfire on Republicans

Last week we had a death in our family - a young person suddenly taken from the ones he loved by a tragic accident. That may make me particularly sensitive to the way Republicans are using the powerful emotions surrounding end-of-life decisions in their desperate attempt to stop President Obama's heath insurance reforms.

Of course the notion that the Obama health insurance reform includes a requirement for a panel to determine whether or not someone gets end-of-life care is simply a lie - made up out of whole cloth by people who specialize in generating fear among average Americans to protect wealthy special interests - in this case the health insurance industry.

And it's not just the far right fringe of the Republican Party that is spreading this lie. Anyone who has the slightest familiarity with these bills knows it is untrue, but just yesterday, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch refused to acknowledge that fact when given the opportunity on This Week.

In fact, the House proposal provides reimbursement to physicians who counsel families and patients on their care options if they were to be confronted by terminal illness - on living wills, hospice care, power of attorney and other issues that can come up at the end of life. Right now the government doesn't pay for those consultations, so not surprisingly, it doesn't happen as often as it should.

Far from giving the government the power to decide who lives or dies, the goal of the proposal is to assure that families are themselves empowered to make those critical decisions - and that is exactly where the power belongs.

Like most people my age, I have been involved in many end-of-life decisions for loved ones. My mother, father, mother-in-law, and father-in-law have all passed away after long illnesses. Those decisions are complex and they are emotional. Often they don't involve black and white judgment calls. To the extent possible, it is extremely important to know the wishes of the person who is ill - and that often involves a living will that expresses his or her wishes, because in the end they are often unable to express them directly.

It is unforgivable that the Republicans would intentionally distort these provisions of the health insurance reform bill in order to prey upon fears that the power to make these critical decisions would be ripped from the hands of families and given to government bureaucrats.

And when voters begin to discover their intentional deceit the very power of the emotions they are trying to unleash can - and should - create a massive backlash.

That is particularly true since historically it has, in fact, been the far right that has tried to snatch decisions about end of life from their rightful place in the hands of families and to inject Government decision makers in their place.

Recall that when the husband of Terry Schiavo made the difficult judgment to end her life in a persistent vegetative state, it was Tom DeLay and the Republicans that tried to get Congress to intervene in that decision. At first they thought it looked like good politics. But it didn't take long for a powerful backlash to form - driven by families all across America - who had themselves faced those judgments and didn't want Tom DeLay and George Bush to substitute the decisions of politicians for their own.

This time, they may face a similar fate as voters come to understand that - for the sake of partisan advantage, and to protect powerful special interests - Republicans in Congress are trying to deny patients and families the right to consult physicians about all of the options for the end-of-life care- if they want that consultation - and even if they can't pay for it.

By taking this position, it is the Republicans who are standing in the way of empowerment for families.

In their attempt to enflame the powerful emotions surrounding the deaths of loved ones by spreading intentional lies, the Republicans have stooped to a new low. The Terry Schiavo case should have taught the Republicans that some emotions are too precious to be exploited for partisan political advantage. Apparently it did not.

But when Americans begin to discover just how far the Republicans have been willing to go to stop health insurance reform, they may receive a new lesson. Republicans will learn that combining those powerful emotions with deceit can create an explosive mixture that they will find impossible to forget.

Robert Creamer is a long time political organizer and strategist and author of the recent book: Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win, available on Amazon.com.

Comments

[harobamason]

Well I hope you are right Robert Creamer.

[Jazzbeau]

Democrats, even with the White House and both houses of congress, ALWAYS get their heads handed to them by the dark side Rethuglicans? I think it boils down to the billions funneled into lobbying and campaigns. The problem is not that our government doesn't work but that it's for sale to the highest bidder, for whom it works exceedingly well.

As a hopeful supporter of President Obama during the election I regret to say I haven't been this disappointed in my candidate since LBJ took us into the Vietnam quagmire. Maybe the President will find some backbone before his first term is over. If not he, like Johnson, will be elected only once.

What we should be talking about is extending Medicare to everyone. Unfortunately that, like impeachment and so much else, has been unilaterally taken off the table by Democratic cowardice. The next item to be surrendered unilaterally is the 'public option.' Health care reform without a public option is a cosmetic change only.

A reform bill will be passed and signed into law during this congress but it will be a reform bill that doesn't reform anything. Then the President can claim a victory while the big pharma & insurance companies get exactly what they've bought and paid for.

Does anyone else find it ironic that one of the few Democrats with any backbone is the openly gay Barney Frank?

[MSGH]

I wish you were right about its backfiring, but, unfortunately, it increasingly seems as though the average American's motto is: "I know what I've been told; don't confuse me with the facts."

[theclosetconservative2]

End of life care under guidance of some independent group sounds nicer but means the same thing. http://theclosetconservative.com

[kashifsaeed]

They may backfire but they have already damaged Obama's reputation. This is what the right is hell bent upon doing since Obama was elected.


My blog:
http://next-world-war.blogspot.com

[Patricia013]

belyeu - by the way - just to straighten you out a bit - I am a lifelong registered democrat and have been for over 50 years! READ a post before you refute a post!

[Patricia013]

belyeu - "If you want to call what insurance companies to to deny care to patients with legitimate claims "death panels" you should do so, but don't call end of life consultations and health care directives "death panels" because they are not."

Puleeze!!!! - go back and read my post - where did I even mention end of life consultations????? What I was referring to is the republicans' stance on death panels and the very real fact that such death panels are in effect and have been in effect for as long as insurance companies have been dictating a patients treatment!

[OmarSpence]

Quixotic describes republicans to a T, They fight reforms that benefit everyone in the long run. They fight the windmills of reform whether actual wind turbines (alternative energy) credit card reform, health care reform, and anything else that needs to be fixed. They also go off fighting ill thought out, crackpot wars and all of this is believed by them to be noble, and all of this assisted by crooked industry special interest groups.

[Patricia013]

What makes you people think there is no "death panel" right now. I'm remembering a case in Glendale, CA about six months to a year ago. A young lady needed a special treatment for (I believe it was some type of blood or bone cancer) - I believe her insurance company was Cigna. At first they said no to the treatment. Her doctor appealed saying she would surely die without it. So, the insurance company took it under consideration and by the time they decided she could have the treatment she was DEAD! This was only a matter of half a day but that bonafide insurance company at that point was surely a death panel!!! They put cost before patient. Its happening all the time and you all don't realize it!!! Every time an insurance company says the treatment is too costly or too rare they are a death panel!

[belyeu]

Patricia: You are talking about an insurance companies denial of a legitimate claim which is one of the reasons we need national health care in the first place. "End of life consultations" are performed by doctors and nurses and it helps patients decide what type of care they wish should they become terminally ill. These are consultations that help patients make there own "health care directives", they are not death panels.

If you want to call what insurance companies to to deny care to patients with legitimate claims "death panels" you should do so, but don't call end of life consultations and health care directives "death panels" because they are not.

You are just another lemming who has become lost in the conservative propaganda machine.

BTW, I have my health care directives prepared should I become terminally ill, every one should.

[newbridge]

She was 17 years old and needed a liver transplant. She died the day the insurance company finally said she could have the treatment. Her father has a huge wrongful death suit against them and I bet he wins. Cigna got so much negative publicity from this, they lost millions of dollars in dropped premiums from people who went elsewhere. I know I will never use them!!!

[jmengr]

"No one ever went broke under-estimating the stupidity of the American Public."
— H.L. Mencken

[Jazzbeau]

Is what you meant here "No one ever went broke OVERestimating the stupidity of the American Public?"

However, I think the actual quote you're referencing is:
"No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."

[zmjz01]

To billw8017 and his followers: I am a patient at the huge M. D. Anderson Cancer Clinic in Houston. They have saved my life twice in in1983-85 and again a few yrs ago. I have a catheter implant in my chest just in case I have to undergo chemotherapy again. I must go every month to get it flushed. Every month I get a bill after Medicare and Aetna. Each and almost every time the bill is different. Somebody is coding something different, or is one room more expensive than the other? One just gives up trying to argue and find out why. I did not want to file an official appeal about cost differences because I don't want to think of myself as "cancer patient" ... when you put that symbol on yourself, it is like karma / darma that you do not want attached.

[salh]

In many cases medical practiced denied is equal to a death sentence. Why do you think Pres. Obama wants to get rid of the Medicare Advantage program? It's because the medical procedures or drugs cost too much. His csst cutting for his healthcare program was coming on the backs of Medicare users.

[Pyrum]

In even more cases, access to medical care is equal to a death sentence. Almost 800,000 people die in America each year from iatrogenic causes: http://www.ourcivilisation.com/medicine/usamed/deaths.htm

[billw8017]

When my doctor told me to have my eyes checked as part of an annual obligation, I kept putting it off until I noticed a "sale" at a local mall. I decided just to do it and mentioned that I was covered by Medicare. Done for cash on the spot, the charge was $50. Eventually, I received a statement saying that Medicare had paid about $46 and I now owed the difference of $44. That, is Medicare had gotten a bill for $96 for a procedure that should have cost me $50 and the little shop was splitting the extra with me ($6 for me and $40 + 50 for them). How nice of them.

This happens because Medicare is forbidden by law from haggling over prices. It is why the same medicines cost so much less in Canada. The Veterans Administration also haggles and gets a price break. Medicare procedures were established by the Bush administration while the VA had been reformed in the Clinton administration. President Obama is proceeding in Clinton's spirit and haggling does mean you can walk away without buying. If this amounts to cost cutting on the backs of Medicare users, it can be a trivial back pain and get money to be better used.

[billw8017]

Medicare had been charged $90 and paid $46 while I paid $44.

[belyeu]

billw: Sounds to me like the normal billing procedure. Medicare does not always pick up every charge. When you see the doctor and you are on medicare you usually have a small co- payment , and that co- payment dependent on the service you receive from your doctor. In the future you need to ask if the service you are receiving is covered by medicare because not every procedure and drug is on medicare's formulary.

In addition, maybe you need to call your doctor back and explain the circumstances. You may have a refund coming your way.

[Scoppertop]

"Republicans will learn" is an oxymoron. They never do.

[Eldienne]

The Republicans are so stuck on stupid that they have become their own worst enemies.

[angiemomma]

From your lips to God's ears, Robert.