The Hill ( h/t In Mary's Image):
Finance Committee to drop end-of-life provision
By Michael O'Brien
Posted: 08/13/09 02:21 PM [ET]
The Senate Finance Committee will drop a controversial provision on consultations for end-of-life care from its proposed healthcare bill, its top Republican member said Thursday.
The committee, which has worked on putting together a bipartisan healthcare reform bill, will drop the controversial provision after it was derided by conservatives as "death panels" to encourage euthanasia.
"On the Finance Committee, we are working very hard to avoid unintended consequences by methodically working through the complexities of all of these issues and policy options," Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement. "We dropped end-of-life provisions from consideration entirely because of the way they could be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly.
"The Finance Committee is the only congressional committee not to report out a preliminary healthcare bill before the August congressional recess, but is expected to unveil its proposal shortly after Labor Day.
Grassley said that bill would hold up better compared to proposals crafted in the House, which he asserted were "poorly cobbled together."
"The bill passed by the House committees is so poorly cobbled together that it will have all kinds of unintended consequences, including making taxpayers fund healthcare subsidies for illegal immigrants," Grassley said. The veteran Iowa lawmaker said the end-of-life provision in those bills would pay physicians to "advise patients about end-of-life care and rate physician quality of care based on the creation of and adherence to orders for end-of-life care.
"Maybe others can defend a bill like the Pelosi bill that leaves major issues open to interpretation, but I can't," Grassley added.
6 comments:
I did a post on this too. Sorry about the repeat, but I agree with Ro. This is BULLSHIT!
I report, you decide :)
I'm guessing you agree.
:)
Yup.
You guys are such hardasses :) I will take this tiny, fleeting victory and cuddle it close to my breast and savor every juicy, delicious moment of it, until I have to go into battle against it again in some other committee or even the Senate.
So...does this mean there really were death panels, Barry? hmmm??
In Barry's defense, he has no idea what is in those bills. He only knows that when he says "jump" everyone asks, in unison "how high?"
He just calls things into existence.
At least, until now.
Which is why he is so sure that anyone who opposes what he wants is evil.
Too bad that it is going to get passed anyway. Maybe we can stop it in 2010, before the bureaucracy is too big or entrenched to reverse it.
Or lawsuits and massive civil disobedience by patients and doctors ensue. That would be cool.
Or will we be too busy trying to stop crap - and - tax?
Ro
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