A healthcare expert says he's appalled at how the Obama administration tried to hide a Medicare regulation that would have had the government pay doctors to advise patients on end-of-life options during their annual visits.
Medicare coverage for voluntary end-of-life planning was put in the original House version of ObamaCare by Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon), but was dropped after Sarah Palin and other Republicans raised the specter of "death panels" deciding the fate of vulnerable seniors. But the end-of-life counseling surfaced again right before Christmas in a Medicare regulation, nearly going unnoticed.
John R. Graham, director of healthcare studies at the Pacific Research Institute, explains what happened.
"The New York Times actually exposed emails from Representative Blumenauer's office saying [paraphrased] 'Don't let this get out there; people will freak out again. So let's keep it quiet and just hope that it's buried in this 134-page regulation, nobody will know about it and we'll get the job done quietly,'" states Graham. "Well, this came out in The New York Times -- and of course, it all blew up very quickly."
Graham says he is "appalled" at the way the administration is handling the matter.
"They try to keep things secret, hidden in the dark -- things that they know are obnoxious and repellent to many people," he laments. "And we've just got to keep on top of this because they're going to try and sneak it in again in the weeks and months to come."
Graham argues that while the Obama administration may not refer to "death panels," that is exactly what the administration wants.
Contact: Bill Bumpas
Source: OneNewsNow
Publish Date: January 10, 2011
