Death Panels
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Great stuff. Prolly a waste of effort, though. Imagine urging Americans to "think."
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I haven't blogged in here much lately because I was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and I've just (today even) gotten a letter from one of those "death" panels. Amazingly, I wasn't shaking when I got the letter. They are called Medical Councils here and they determine whether someone is eligible or not for 100 percent medical coverage provided by the state, due to a prolonged illness that is in no way the fault of the patient.
This "Council" provides an essential service that is desperately needed in the US. It makes a decision about a patient's health that does not depend upon considerations like age, income, pre-existing conditions or lifestyle. The council has only one question to answer: does the patient have an illness (or trauma) that requires long term treatment? If the answer to that question is yes, the person is immediately covered at 100 percent for the duration of the illness. the NHS functions in the same way, hence Hawking's extended care.
Healthcare Decisions Day
WHEREAS, Healthcare Decisions Day is designed to raise public awareness of the need to plan ahead for healthcare decisions, related to end of life care and medical decision-making whenever patients are unable to speak for themselves and to encourage the specific use of advance directives to communicate these important healthcare decisions. WHEREAS, in Alaska, Alaska Statute 13.52 provides the specifics of the advance directives law and offers a model form for patient use.
WHEREAS, it is estimated that only about 20 percent of people in Alaska have executed an advance directive. Moreover, it is estimated that less than 50 percent of severely or terminally ill patients have an advance directive.
WHEREAS, it is likely that a significant reason for these low percentages is that there is both a lack of knowledge and considerable confusion in the public about Advance Directives.
WHEREAS, one of the principal goals of Healthcare Decisions Day is to encourage hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, continuing care retirement communities, and hospices to participate in a statewide effort to provide clear and consistent information to the public about advance directives, as well as to encourage medical professionals and lawyers to volunteer their time and efforts to improve public knowledge and increase the number of Alaska’s citizens with advance directives.
WHEREAS, the Foundation for End of Life Care in Juneau, Alaska, and other organizations throughout the United States have endorsed this event and are committed to educating the public about the importance of discussing healthcare choices and executing advance directives.
WHEREAS, as a result of April 16, 2008, being recognized as Healthcare Decisions Day in Alaska, more citizens will have conversations about their healthcare decisions; more citizens will execute advance directives to make their wishes known; and fewer families and healthcare providers will have to struggle with making difficult healthcare decisions in the absence of guidance from the patient.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Sarah Palin, Governor of the state of Alaska, do hereby proclaim April 16, 2008, as:
Healthcare Decisions Day in Alaska, and I call this observance to the attention of all our citizens.
You would think that if Republicans wanted to totally mischaracterize a health care provision and demagogue it like nobody's business, they would at least pick something that the vast majority of them hadn't already voted for just a few years earlier. Because that's not just shameless, it's stupid.
Yes, that's right. Remember the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill, the one that passed with the votes of 204 GOP House members and 42 GOP Senators? Anyone want to guess what it provided funding for? Did you say counseling for end-of-life issues and care? Ding ding ding!!
Let's go to the bill text, shall we? "The covered services are: evaluating the beneficiary's need for pain and symptom management, including the individual's need for hospice care; counseling the beneficiary with respect to end-of-life issues and care options, and advising the beneficiary regarding advanced care planning." The only difference between the 2003 provision and the infamous Section 1233 that threatens the very future and moral sanctity of the Republic is that the first applied only to terminally ill patients. Section 1233 would expand funding so that people could voluntarily receive counseling before they become terminally ill.
So either Republicans were for death panels in 2003 before turning against them now--or they're lying about end-of-life counseling in order to frighten the bejeezus out of their fellow citizens and defeat health reform by any means necessary. Which is it, Mr. Grassley ("Yea," 2003)?
thesumofyourfears wrote:Except:
"Enter Section 1233 of the health-care bill drafted in the Democratic-led House, which would pay doctors to give Medicare patients end-of-life counseling every five years -- or sooner if the patient gets a terminal diagnosis.
On the far right, this is being portrayed as a plan to force everyone over 65 to sign his or her own death warrant. That's rubbish. Federal law already bars Medicare from paying for services "the purpose of which is to cause, or assist in causing," suicide, euthanasia or mercy killing. Nothing in Section 1233 would change that. "
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 03043.html
why do you keep spreading lies, A-Fraud?
A Person wrote:thesumofyourfears wrote:why do you keep spreading lies, A-Fraud?
Please identify a lie I have spread.
SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:........
Apparently, Summy has decided that the accusation is all that he needs to do.
"We've actually started a national debate about exactly what is at stake here," Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Wednesday.
Speaking on MSNBC, Steele said the town hall meetings across the country are reflecting that debate. However, when asked directly about one of the most controversial statements by some Republicans -- that a House bill would create "death panels" to decide who gets treatment -- Steele refused to acknowledge that such language was misinformation.
Did you know that Adolf Hitler had three testicles?
You didn't? Well, you are right. That is just an urban legend -- one that I have just created.
In fact, if anyone tells you that Hitler had three testicles, they are either misinformed or they are lying.
Why am I mentioning Hitler's three testicles to you right now? Because by mentioning the myth of his three testicles, and debunking that same myth, I am actually increasing the odds that some time in the future you will mistakenly believe that Hitler really did have excess, um, baggage.
Behavioral scientists have discovered that familiarity breeds belief. In research studies, they have exposed people to series of true and false messages, telling people at the same time which of those messages were true or false. Later, they exposed people to these same messages, and asked them whether they thought the messages were true or false. They found that previous exposure to these messages increased the number of people who believed these messages were true, even the messages that had been identified as false.
How does this happen? People remember hearing the message ("Hmmm, three testicles, that sounds familiar"), but forget learning that the message was false.
Therein lies the brilliance of Sarah Palin's death panels. Having heard this rumor countless times now, casual observers of politics (a.k.a. the majority of the American public) will come to believe that the rumor is true.
Lying, unfortunately, can be smart politics. And countering those lies by pointing out their falseness -- that won't be enough, if we believe what behavioral scientists have learned.
Proponents of health care reform must not only debunk these myths, they must also create powerful images to counter those myths -- images of how health care reform would improve people's lives. Images that can compete, if not with extra testicles, then at least with Sarah Palin's face book page.
Brown Launches Independent Inquiry into HMOs' Handling of Health Insurance Claims
Los Angeles - Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced that deputies in his office are launching an independent inquiry into how Health Maintenance Organizations review and pay insurance claims submitted by doctors, hospitals and other medical providers.
This investigation is prompted by reports that California's five largest health-insurance providers are denying insurance claims at rates of up to 39.6 percent.
"These high denial rates suggest a system that is dysfunctional, and the public is entitled to know whether wrongful business practices are involved," Brown said.
In the coming days and weeks, deputies will review records and will speak with individuals who have relevant knowledge of the issues raised.
State HMOs deny 1 in 5 claims, analysis shows
By Lisa Girion
Los Angeles Times
September 3, 2009
A nurses group says state government data show that denial rates among the five largest insurers ranged up to 39.6% in the first half of 2009. The firms caution that the figures are misleading.
California HMOs reject one out of five medical claims, according to an analysis by the California Nurses Assn. of data the companies submit to the state.
The analysis -- the first of its kind based on state government-collected data -- concluded that from 2002 through June 30, 2009, five of the largest insurers in the state rejected 31.2 million claims for medical care, or 21% of all claims.
The denial rates ranged from a low for Aetna of 6.5% to a high for PacifiCare of 39.6%, for the first half of 2009. Anthem Blue Cross, the state's largest for-profit health plan, and Kaiser, the state's largest nonprofit plan, each rejected 28% of claims during the first six months of this year, according to the study. And Cigna denied 33%.
"Every claim that is denied represents a real patient enduring pain and suffering," said Deborah Burger, co-president of the organization. "Every denial has real, sometimes fatal, consequences."
But insurers cautioned that claim rejections reported to regulators do not always reflect actual denials of treatment to patients. And, they said, claims may be denied for a number of legitimate reasons.
"Health plans have strict requirements and meet the letter of their contracts with their members to make sure they pay all the claims they are supposed to," said Nicole Kasabian Evans, a spokeswoman for the California Assn. of Health Plans.
