During the debate over the enactment of Obamacare, there was considerable controversy over paying Medicare health care providers to conduct “advance care planning,” which counsels patients on deciding whether to choose or reject life-preserving medical treatment (and even food and fluids) and advising on legal documents implementing that decision. That provision was taken out of the ultimately enacted law because of an outcry by those who feared it would be used to limit health care spending by persuading people to agree to forego life-saving treatments. Now, the Obama Administration is proposing to use executive power to revive it as a regulation to take effect January 1, 2016.
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has introduced a bill, H.R. 3251, to prevent the Administration from implementing new Medicare payments for “advance care planning” sessions, which substantial evidence shows are in most cases likely to “nudge” seniors to accept denial of life-preserving care and medically assisted provision of food and fluids.
Click here to Contact your Representative to urge him or her to cosponsor H.R. 3251!
Documentation and multiple examples of bias can be found in a report entitled “The Bias Against Life-Preserving Treatment in Advance Care Planning,” available HERE.
Click here for the originating article from National Right to Life.
