Breaking News Archive 2009

What You Aren't Hearing

The ongoing debate and media coverage regarding healthcare reform may leave you with more questions than answers. If that’s the case, you’re not alone.

A lot of the anger at these town meetings (which I’ll also address) has been generated by senior citizens, concerned their medical care will be denied due to rationing. Section 1233 of HR 3200 would pay physicians to have end-of-life counseling sessions. These take place every 5 years or sooner if a terminal illness has been diagnosed. Advocates of this healthcare plan (including the media) would have you think we’re making false, wild-eyed claims that this is pushing euthanasia on the elderly. But a non-biased examination of the issue shows we’re basically right.

Charles Lane, on the editorial board of the Washington Post, a liberal newspaper, said our concerns are well-founded. These end-of-life consultations are voluntary, but according to him, that’s a relative term. The doctors initiate the conversation, not the patient, and they have an incentive—it’s money. Patients may refuse the consultation, but let’s face it, many will submit to the doctor’s authority. Based upon the information that the doctor must discuss, Mr. Lane believes, and I agree, that this section of the plan goes beyond facilitating doctor input to preferring it.

If patients feel they’re being pushed, they can’t go to another doctor, because they will all be operating under the same guidelines and procedures. If you have a grievance, who do you appeal to? The government.

Now imagine these “consultations” in the overall context of this proposal. The number one question surrounding healthcare reform is, “How will it be paid for?” Congress is already planning to rob Medicare of over $500 billion dollars to help fill the gap. It doesn’t take a cynical mind to see that this “volunteer consultation” would quickly morph into an involuntary method of preventing the elderly from draining limited resources. Another word for this is euthanasia.

We’re also hearing how opponents of Mr. Obama’s healthcare reform are angry and violent at town hall meetings. They want you to think that these protesters are merely puppets of some vague right-wing conspiracy, assembled to disrupt the meetings. But thanks to some great investigative research by Peter J. Smith at Life Site News, we have access to more information than the media and President Obama want to share. Here are a few highlights:

Members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), supporters of Mr. Obama’s healthcare reform, physically attacked an African-American man outside an event while shouting racist comments at him. Six were arrested.

In Tampa Bay 1,500 showed up at a meeting place equipped for only 250 people. SEIU members were admitted through a side door, while opponents, including senior citizens, were shoved and not allowed entrance.

In Michigan a protestor was there with his son, Scott, who is in a wheelchair and suffers from cerebral palsy. He said he and his family were threatened in the middle of the night after the protest.

The response of some Democrat members of Congress has been to avoid town hall or one-on-one meetings with their constituents period. In a USA Today editorial, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer accused opponents to Mr. Obama’s plan as “un-American.” Ms. Pelosi told the San Francisco Chronicle, “They’re carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare.” But the truth was they were holding signs with the Nazi symbol crossed out—a reference to what they believe Mr. Obama’s plan represents. And the media wonder why so many Americans are upset?! Congress has a history of treating voters like a necessary inconvenience. The people of this great nation are showing they’ve had enough and their anger is understandable.

Here’s Peter Smith’s entire article if you’d like to read it. I highly recommend it. http://www.lifeissues.org/breakingnews/2009/Peter_Smith.htm

A just-released Rasmussen poll shows a majority of Americans fear the federal government more than they do private insurance companies when it comes to providing healthcare. If those in the majority in Washington, DC want to survive their next election, they should scrap Mr. Obama’s plan and start over, keeping the American people as their number one priority.

I promise to keep you updated,
Bradley Mattes
Executive Director
Life Issues Institute

08/12/09

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