Requiem for Obama’s ‘Death Panels’

By Erick Galindo
Hispanic Link News Service

A hidden provision in the House tri-committee health care bill creates “death panels.” It proposes federal committees to decide how old folks should die.

Seized on by anti-“Obamacare” zealots, this provision has gained instant mass-media attention, terrifying millions.

There’s only one problem. No such provision exists.

“There are no death panels anywhere in the health bill,” Dr. Elena Ríos, National Hispanic Medical Association president, emphasized to Hispanic Link News Service, “It’s just another way of changing the argument to create confusion.”

The pernicious rumor led to what Ríos called “irrational” discourse in the health care debate, putting senior citizens in the middle.

Already covered by Medicare, seniors are being targeted for scare tactics that President Obama wants to “pull the plug on grandma” and take away her insurance. On Aug. 22 Obama responded in his weekly address to this and other rumors.

“Every credible person who has looked into it has said there are no so-called ‘death panels’ – an offensive notion to me and to the American people,” he said. “These are phony claims meant to divide us.”

The president also confronted rumors that taxes would fund abortions, cover illegal immigrants’ care and that the government would ration health services.

“There is fear of government takeover, but this isn’t a takeover,” Ríos elaborated. “It is a change in the government’s role that will hold insurance companies more accountable. The government will not decide your treatment. Your doctor will.”

Both Ríos and Obama pointed out that insurance companies do make such decisions at present. “I no sooner want government to get between you and your doctor than I want insurance companies to make arbitrary decisions about what medical care is best for you, as they do today,” Obama said. “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep your plan.”

Senior citizens in particular are wary that rationed health care would mean less Medicare. The president has pointed to the fact that Medicare is unsustainable at status quo and will run out of money in eight years.

“It won’t be totally broke, but it will be in the red, because the costs are going up a lot faster than the money that’s coming in,” the president said.

With more than 2 million Hispanics age 65 or older and 30% of those below 65 uninsured, this is a particularly ominous prediction. By 2030, the Hispanic elderly are projected to comprise 11.2% of the U.S. elderly population. By 2050, that figure is expected to climb to 17.5%.

Without Medicare or some form of subsidized insurance, Rios said, the community will be at increasingly greater risk.

The president put the blame on insurance company greed and partisan politics.

“The insurance companies and their allies don’t like this idea or any that would promote greater competition. I get that,” he said. He has also blamed the media for spreading “death panel” rumors.

During an Aug. 20 webcast, Obama maintained, “Part of the reason it spreads is the way reporting is done today. If somebody puts out misinformation, ‘Obama’s Creating Death Panels,’ then the way the news report comes across is, ‘Today such-and-such accused President Obama of putting forward death panels. The White House responded that that wasn’t true.’ And then they go on to the next story. And what they don’t say is, in fact it isn’t true.”

The president mentioned that people already have a natural tendency to distrust the government. This fear, Ríos said, is especially prominent in the Hispanic community and it has been exploited to create distractions in the health care debate.

Dr. Christine Cassel, American Board of Internal Medicine president, has also made it clear that she has read the specific provision of the bill and that it does not include anything closely related to a death panel.

Cassel told a packed audience at the National Press Club Aug. 20 that the provisions in the House’s H.R. 3200 dealing with “end of life” simply ensure patients who seek counseling on issues such as a living will or what their options are if diagnosed as terminally ill would be able to afford such services.

Another rumor, that government panels would “ration health care,” is explicitly addressed in the bill: “Nothing in this section shall be construed to permit the Commission or the Center to mandate coverage, reimbursement, or other policies for any public or private payer.”

The Associated Press, ABC News, FactCheck.org and Pulitzer-winning Politifact all have debunked both rumors. Still, GOP leaders such as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele and Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley have all fueled them.

The provision that would pay for end-of-life counseling and care would greatly help Hispanics, Rios maintained. “We all have or have had grandparents who are very ill. It’s important to know their options and feel comfortable they have quality of care even at the end of life.”

(Erick Galindo is a reporter with Hispanic Link News Service in Washington, D.C. Email: erick.geee@gmail.com)
©2009
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~ by Erick G. on September 1, 2009.