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SENATE VOTE LIKELY ON
FUNDING MEDICARE DOCTORS TO TALK WITH SENIOR
CITIZENS ABOUT REJECTING TREATMENT
Two of Two
Editor’s note. This appeared yesterday on the
Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics blog--
"Senator [Jay] Rockefeller
[(D-WV)] . . . has had legislation in place to
promote advance care planning . . . [;] his
staff has said that he plans to, at the 11th
hour, to step in and try to use his influence to
put it back into the legislation as an
amendment."
-- Myra Christopher, President, Center for Practical
Bioethics, in October 1, 2009 Kansas City Rotary
Club speech
During the summer there was
considerable criticism of provisions in the
House health care restructuring bill that would
reimburse Medicare physicians to discuss
"advance care planning" with their senior
citizen patients, in the express expectation
that many would complete advance directives
rejecting life-preserving medical treatment and
thus save substantial sums of money, as well as
other sections promoting such advance
directives. In reaction, neither the bill
reported in July from the Senate Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions Committee nor that
reported in October from the Senate Finance
Committee contained similar provisions.
During the Senate Finance
Committee deliberations, however, Senator
Rockefeller spoke out strongly for their
inclusion. A speech from a long-time advocate
reveals that his strategy is to do so "at the
llth hour," presumably meaning toward the end of
Senate floor consideration of the merged bill
developed for submission to the full Senate by
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)
Myra Christopher, a friend of
Health and Human Services Secretary (and former
Kansas Governor) Kathleen Sebelius, heads a
major "bioethics" think tank that has long
pushed for advance directives. Her Rotary Club
talk left no doubt of the economic motive for
promoting advance care consultations.
"The reality is that 9% to 11% of
the entire health care budget is spent on end of
life care – nearly 27% to 30% depending on whose
data you want to believe of the Medicare budget
is spent on end of life care," she said.
"Conservatively, conservatively, $6.1 billion
every year of Medicare is wasted on what we
refer to as futile care . . . ."
Part One |
