Thread: ObamaCare Death Panels Illegally Withholding Treatment

ObamaCare Death Panels Illegally Withholding Treatment

October 5, 2013 by Doug Book 13 Comments



For three years, the left have railed against Sarah Palin, ridiculing the former Governor’s claims of Death Panels operating within the Affordable Care Act.

But Sarah has at last been vindicated. The Oregon Health Authority (OHA)–the state agency that is bringing Oregon health plans into line with ObamaCare mandates–is promoting a guideline which states that “…treatment with intent to prolong survival is not a covered service for patients who have progressive metastatic cancer and are not able (in the view of the physician) to be helped.

Palliative care is all that will be provided.” (My italics)
Does anyone recall Barack’s classic moment in 2009 when he told a daughter whose 104 year old mother was still enjoying life 5 years after getting a pacemaker that maybe Mama should have just taken a pain pill? Obama stated quite succinctly that it is just not worth spending money on the elderly.

So it has all come to pass, just as Palin and others said it would. And incredibly, the Oregon Health Authority’s “let ‘em die” guideline is in DIRECT CONFLICT with the written rules of the Affordable Care Act, “…which ensures health benefits may not be denied on the basis of expected length or quality of life.”

But in a law filled with personal affronts to the liberty loving, perhaps the most palpably unconstitutional provision introduces the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), a group whose 15 members are selected exclusively by the president and whose stated purpose is the reduction of Medicare spending. Not only are Board members unelected; neither Congress nor any future president will have veto authority over recommended IPAB cuts unless they can obtain a super-majority (3/5ths) vote in the Senate, a majority in the House, and the president’s signature! Failing these extraordinary requirements, all Board “suggestions” for the reduction of Medicare expense MUST go into effect immediately!
In short, the IPAB effectively wields more authority than Congress or the President! It is a thoroughly unconstitutional mix of corruption and tyrannical power for which the American people have the Democrat Party and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to thank.

By the way, the Board’s expense reductions in medical care will naturally target seniors almost exclusively; that is, voters who favored even the weak Mitt Romney candidacy by a 56%-44% margin and often vote Republican by even wider margins in midterm election years. Just a coincidence, no doubt.

But fortunately, Oregonians need not despair. For written into ObamaCare’s death panel guidelines is a codicil through which care to the critically ill might actually be provided. According to the Oregon Health Authority, “in order to qualify for treatment coverage, the patient must undergo a ‘discussion’ and, evidently if he can prove he can live anyway, then he can get treatment.”

In other words, if a patient can successfully convince the doctor who deemed the case hopeless that his diagnosis was WRONG, the patient can qualify for treatment! Get a doctor to admit before God–and more importantly, his colleagues–that he was wrong!

Now what could be more fair than that?!


http://www.westernjournalism.com/oba...OwLgRPmJ2D8.01

Obamacare Death Panels Come to Oregon: Committee May Deny Cancer Treatment

by Gayle Atteberry | Salem, OR | LifeNews.com | 8/13/13 10:16 AM

Even though it was 85 degrees outside today, a snowball was made. It is a small snowball, but it is not going to melt. In fact it is going to grow and before long, it will be so big that no one will be able to move it.

I attended a little-noticed meeting this afternoon of the “Health Evidence Review Commission”, a committee which is part of the Oregon Health Authority and is bringing Oregon’s health plan in line with Obamacare. It is a committee that no one knows or cares about, except it is one that will soon rule, and perhaps ruin, your life.
Up for very little discussion (to their shame) and a vote today was a guideline concerning Medicaid patients. The guideline said that “treatment with intent to prolong survival is not a covered service for patients who have progressive metastatic cancer” and are not able (in the view of the physician) to be helped. Palliative care is all that will be provided.

In order to qualify for treatment coverage, the patient must undergo a “discussion” and, evidently if he can prove he can live anyway, then he can get treatment.

Many things are wrong with this picture and I, representing Oregon Right to Life, testified against this dangerous guideline, the FIRST of its kind under Obamacare.

To be fair, unbeknownst to most all people, the Oregon Health Plan already had this guideline. Although equally wrong and deadly as the new guideline, the old one was contained to a small group. Now those who will be subject to this ruling will expand to a much larger group, and it will be rigorously enforced.

ORTL, along with others, testified that this guideline is in direct conflict with the Affordable Care Act, which ensures health benefits may not be denied on the basis of expected length or quality of life.

I explained our concern about the mandatory discussion. We all know one of the key objectives in Obamacare is to save money. It is also no secret there is serious prejudice against money spent on end-of-life care. It is becoming less of a secret that these “discussions” are framed so as to talk patients out of expensive care into less-costly comfort care

I read two powerful testimonials from cancer victims and a letter from Dr. Charles Bentz, a physician who has cared for hundreds of cancer patients and created a curriculum for palliative care for Providence St. Vincent Hospital. I was interrupted and told to hurry, my time (3 minutes) was about up. So much for serious consideration of this life an death topic.

Representatives from the American Cancer Society, a patient’s right’s group and a pharmaceutical company also testified in opposition. With only 48 hours notice, that was all who could be mustered.

Other than derision of our testimonies, assurance that this guideline is more expansive and better than the old, and assurances it would only be used for those where further care was completely hopeless, little discussion was held. The <acronym title="Google Page Ranking">PR</acronym> for this rule is down pat….even a handout was provided with all the “good points” of the new rule.

The chairman noted “how could they know if this rule was in conflict with Obamacare?” They would let others deal with that question, he said. He also explained that so many more people would be added to Medicaid, how could they possibly have money to give everyone the health care they wanted?……a telling comment.

The retired oncologist railed at me saying that he had seen hundreds of breast cancers and if a woman only had two more weeks to live, what difference did trying to help her make anyway? To this last remark, the patient’s rights gentlemen retorted that his mother died of stage 4 cancer and if he could have had two more weeks with her, it would have made a LOT of difference! The oncologist’s coldness of heart and explosive anger made me very glad he is now retired.

The snowball looks small now because it affects only Medicaid patients and claims to have “safeguards” so only the most hopeless of conditions will be under its ruling. I have seen enough to tell you that something like this is never contained. ”Safeguards” do NOT work! The one who determines whether or not the patient is “hopeless” is the physician. We see the “quality of life” instead of the “sanctity of life” overtaking the medical field. Cost containment demands will soon rule even the best of doctors, who will be forced to “live within the government’s means.”

Soon all health exchanges in Oregon will be operating under the same rule, and since this has to do with Obamacare, other exchanges and plans will begin using the same criteria.

Even though few will even know this happened, and even fewer will be concerned, this was “the cold day in h—“ that we hoped would never come. We will now watch the snowball formed today grow and grow.
Stay healthy.

LifeNews Note: Gayle Atteberry is the executive director of Oregon Right to Life. This originally appeared at NRL News Today.

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/08/13/o...cer-treatment/