Saturday, August 8, 2009

Caveat Lectores on Health Care Reform

I am a forthright supporter of health care reform that may provide a public option to provide health care for those who cannot get it elsewhere. Why? You may ask.
Make no mistake, it is self interest on my part. I have no health care insurance. I am trying to stay alive long enough to get socialized medicine of some sort, either in the form of Medicare or something else. I lost my high deductible private health care insurance a few years ago when the premium went up to $2680.00 per month and could get other insurance in the private market because of age and/or pre-exisiting condition or just the fact that I do not have an employer to subsidize the cost.
What is being spread in the various media and covertly in personal emails is largely false. The hysteria being spread about is shameful. I fully understand why those with adequate employer provided insurance would not want to lose it, but there is nothing in the proposed legislation that would dismantle the current system. I do not understand why anyone would go to the lengths of distortion I see around me to make sure the same opportunity is denied to me. Reasonable people can disagree, but the discord and distortion which surrounds this issue is not reasonable.
Former Alaska governor and most recently a quitter “when the chips are not falling my way” Sarah Palin offered the following comments on her Facebook page.
"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care."
I actually read those words when I looked at her Facebook statement. While I will not call the former governor a bald faced liar, I will say that once again she has her facts wrong as do so many others.
Go to http://factcheck.org/2009/07/false-euthanasia-claims/ for a clear and concise report on this bit of false propaganda designed to panic the unwitting public who will fall for nearly any distortions that seem to come from the mouth of someone who should know better or fits into their idea of what is right. Don’t you just hate it when facts get in the way of ignorance foisted upon the uninformed.
What she refers to is a section of the proposed law that will require Medicare to pay for the following:
H.R. 3200, page 425:
(A) An explanation by the practitioner of advance care planning, including key questions and considerations, important steps, and suggested people to talk to.
(B) An explanation by the practitioner of advance directives, including living wills and durable powers of attorney, and their uses.
(C) An explanation by the practitioner of the role and responsibilities of a health care proxy.
(D) The provision by the practitioner of a list of national and State-specific resources to assist consumers and their families with advance care planning .
(E) An explanation by the practitioner of the continuum of end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice, and benefits for such services and supports that are available under this title.
(F)(i) Subject to clause (ii), an explanation of orders regarding life sustaining treatment or similar orders … .
If when the time comes for me to depart this world, somebody hinders my efforts, they better hope I die soon because I will be pissed. If anyone makes the decision to screw around with my natural death or health care, I want it to be family and friends first, government second and a private for profit insurance company last.
First of all, seniors already have socialized medicine. Medicare has been around for 43 years and is successful. It is government provided access to the healthcare system that all will qualify for and use if we live long enough. We will not have a real choice, not because the government requires it, but because primary private health insurance is not available for seniors over 65 in most cases. It is costly, but everything has a cost.
Second, we have health care rationing now. Just try to get coverage for something your insurer thinks will cost too much. Rationed health care is a 100% fact of life for me today. I am totally denied access to the system because I cannot afford to participate.
I am not comfortable with much that is going on with the Democrats in charge, but I was in severe agony for the eight years before that.
And Oh Yes. Have a nice day

wjc

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