This blog author would like us to
believe that the death panel discussion is over and that all it took
was a change in 'end of life discussions' that the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services is now set to reimburse doctors for
now. He seems to conveniently forget that it was never about
end-of-life palliative care. It was, and remains, about the
Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), its power, and its
non-accountability.
Sorry, I am on a rant, but I really
don't like this discussion by Bob Doherty of the
The ACP Advocate Blog. He is a
Washington insider and obviously needs to protect some people in his
advocating. In comments to his blog here, all are agreeing with him,
but when another publication picked his blog to write about, the
comments are basically my thoughts from the last sentence in the
first paragraph.
I attempted to put my comment on his
blog, but after four days, I know it will not be published because he
controls the comments like I do. I can agree with several statements
in his blog, and especially this - “Advance care planning allows
a person with decision-making capacity to develop and indicate
preferences for care and choose a surrogate to act on his or her
behalf in the event that he or she cannot make health care
decisions.”
I don't agree that the death panel was
ever about discussing advance care planning with their patients,
physicians would then pressure patients to give up on treatment and
end their lives. It has always been about the Independent Payment
Advisory Board (IPAB), it's power, and it's non-accountability. The
IPAB would not answer to anyone and could make recommendations
without having to worry about any ramifications or even lawsuits.
This was what was correctly labeled as the “death panel.”
Recently the House of Representatives
passed a bill to prevent the IPAB from existing, but the Senate has
refused to discuss this and not even allowed it to be assigned to a
committee, thanks to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY.
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