The parties are over, the feasts are finished, and everyone is sick of leftovers. So what better time could Barack Obama choose to quietly enact his new plan for leftover humans?
When Obamacare was passed, "end of life counseling" (which some people said would lead directly to "death panels") was removed from the already repugnant bill because it was considered politically touchy to pay doctors to tell old people not to seek medical treatment. And yet, if old people continue seeing the doctor just because they're dying, the economics of Obamacare don't work. So what's a president to do?
Simple - put his policy into effect via regulation instead of legislation, so it can't be voted down by the pesky representatives of the people.
Specifically, the president's new policy will give some of the few remaining Medicare funds (after Obamacare cut $500 billion from their coffers) to doctors in return for counseling older patients on end-of-life options "which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment."
Doctors will help senior citizens make these decisions during annual physicals by asking simple questions like: "Why do you want to be a burden to your family?" "Don't you think a blind orphan could use the corneas you're currently hogging?" and "Is life with an ingrown toenail really worth living?"
For the economics of Obamacare to work, old people have to die - it's that simple. And if that can be accomplished through regulation instead of law, and suggestion instead of edict, then true "death panels" for senior citizens won't be necessary.
Unless they refuse to go quietly.
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14 comments:
I sort-of feel about my life the same way that I feel about my gun: they can have it when they pry it from my cold dead fingers. Or, in a phrase singularly appropriate to Texas, where I live, because it's on an an early Texas flag along with a drawing of a cannon, "Come And Take It!"
All the pundits and media elite are climbing over each other to apologize to Sarah Palin and acknowledge her prescience, right??
...Bueller??
How old is Biden, again? Maybe he can be the first to try it out. You know...make sure the system is working right.
My doctor gives me "end of life" counseling almost every visit. He tells me to lose weight, exercise, lower my LCL, Tri G's, BP, increase my HCL all BECAUSE if I don't I will die sooner rather than later. I dont' think the government needs to give him money to tell me that. He does have my best interest at heart and if I choose not to listen to him, then I am a fool whose money will be soon parted...or departed, if you wish.
And you know what's odd? What perhaps you all never thought about (and maybe don't even want to think about)? In the debate over ObamaCare I argued with my gay friends that those death panels will be used against gay guys with HIV eventually, too. As they'll be used against any less than perfectly healthy socialist perfect humans. For once the frail elderly are gone, it'll be time to go after the other sick folks, or even before. To save money perhaps, and to rid society of the weak and infirm. It's not just the elderly these panels will be used against, but eventually kids with difficult medical conditions too, and people of all ages in between with divers conditions. And the 500,000 or so gay men with HIV are almost certainly an expensive drain on society with no worthy contribution, it will be said (quietly) by that man Berwick and his fellow conniver Sebelius. And many of my friends have now come to reconsider the matter. Especially in light of funding cuts for HIV drugs already being seen or contemplated, since they're mostly Medicaid/Medicare funded. Nothing like killing off folks by denying life sustaining drugs, eh? Which is going to make for some strange, um, bedfellows. Gay guys joining conservatives to stop this monstrosity, or some conservatives joining liberals saying "Well, it's just those gays." I do think though, the latter will not happen, and the former is happening. As we find out what's in this law and it's malignant bureaucracies the nation will grow more sullen, and a Congressional death panel of sorts should do this law in, and put it out of its misery.
Jim,
I have seen some documentaries on the leadup to World War II, and this is the same thing the Nazis did. Children with medical conditions would be "taken" by the State for "treatment", and the parents told later that their child had passed away. In reality they were trying to weed out anyone less than perfect, in their eyes.
Jim & Anonymous - Weeding out the "unfit" (by whatever definition) won't be an unintended side effect of Obamacare... it's the reason for Obamacare.
The alleged "cost savings" come from denial of expensive care to those who most need it, in order to fund more people being added to the government coffers. It's "inefficient" for lots of money to be spent on one person who is nearing death...which is why Obamacare levies fines (in the form of additional taxes) on people who have paid for "too much" health insurance with their own money.
And in determining what sort of medical treatment people will receive under Obamacare, consider some of the decisions that are already being made: the government is increasingly refuse to pay for medicines that will improve the quality of life, but not "cure" a condition. Which should terrify anyone with HIV...or cancer...or any geriatric illness.
Obamacare is not about medicine; it's about power and wealth redistribution. And part of shepherding the "wealth" is making sure the "unfit" won't share in it...even if they're the ones who earned it and contributed it (albeit not voluntarily) to the system.
Stilton - Well said!
-All you have to do to determine who falls into the first wave those too "unfit" for many medical services is to read the published books and articles of Obummer's health care "advisors." It doesn't take long to discover that the only people not considered "unfit" by these so-called "ethicists" must not only be demonstrably healthy but must also fall into the statistically "healthy" demographic. Interestingly, that demographic also is not very politically experienced.
Readers- In my comment (two above) in which I said "the government is increasingly refuse to pay," I clearly meant "I am increasingly refuse to proofread before I post." D'oh!!!
A mom I met last week is already fearing the effects of ObamaCare for her daughter with Downs Syndrome. Under new rules effective 2011, her daughter is unlikely to qualify for needed speech therapy because she doesn't have a "medical" need. There are some truely frightening opinions coming out of the mouths of academia and elsewhere regarding the value of human life, particularly if a child is born with mental deficiencies. Infanticide is openly recommended by some. It would seem that geriatricide (my word) would be their solution on the other end of the age spectrum. All of which make Jim's concerns hardly far-fetched. I guess this is why the abortion debates have always been important. Abortion supporters don't want the government to interfere with a pregnant woman's choice to have a doctor kill her unborn fetus, yet they want U.S. taxpayers to finance the decision to abort. It gets uglier and more ironic when woman hire doctors to kill viable babies through partial-birth abortion. It was the beginning of a very slippery slope.
My dad went to the dr a few weeks ago and the dr said that under the new Obamacare rules, the doctors have to get permission from the insurance company (or government program) to do planned treatment options...it is no longer up to the doctor to treat the patient...it is up to the insurance/government to treat the patient. That's super scary.
I have always felt that the issue even BEFORE the abortion debate, was when ONE WOMAN managed to start the wheels rolling toward turning a nation away from God back in the very early 60's. Talk about a slippery slope! It seems that many issues have raised their ugly heads since then and continue to do so! So, many Americans are OK with killing unborn babies, and so on and so on until now we're talking death panels for the old and infirm. I agree, it is reminicent of Hitler's regime. What a mess this country is in.
Pryorguy...the sad thing is, that ONE woman has long since regretted her part in getting abortion legalized, and is now a pro-life activist. Crazy huh.
I envision old people and others with little or nothing left to lose blowing away a dr. or some obamacare bureaucrat, getting sent to prison, and finally getting all the free medical care they want.
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