I was watching tv where Pat Buchannan was arguing that there would be rationing of care for the elderly in the last 6 or so months of their lives.
That these indeed are like Palin’s death panels that would “pull the plug on grandma.”
This makes me sick…
NOW these discussions take place all over the country, it’s called end of life counseling and there are groups like hospice that help families deal with these decisions.
NOW people are told they can’t have procedures because of lack of insurance or because they have a pre-existing condition.
Young people, people in the prime of their lives… who live with failing health and face an uncertain future or death because they don’t fit in with the insurance companies bottom line: PROFIT.
It makes me so sick… that anyone listens to this horrible distraction about death panels.
My mother recently passed away the end of May. I’m still dealing with a lot of sadness and the loss of someone I loved very much. She had cancer amongst other health issues like carotid artery disease and heart issues (she’d had a prior triple bypass surgery 15 years ago).
The options available to her were discussed honestly and frankly by her doctors. She could have had dozens more invasive tests to confirm what they already knew, she had cancer that had metastasized from skin cancer.
She was told that she was not a good candidate for extensive surgery and wouldn’t survive the ordeal. They could not recommend the procedures and likely no surgeon would want to perform it.
She was 89 years old and appreciated the honesty and support she received from her doctors. She passed away at home with her family around her.
It’s a difficult time for me to think about this issue.
But one thing that’s obvious to me: NOW the insurance companies dictate these life and death decisions for you. Not you. Not your doctor. Decisions made with a mindset to deny coverage to increase profit.
Insurance reform is necessary… I don’t believe that the insurance conglomerates with billion dollar CEO’s who hold a stranglehold monopoly on people’s health options right now is at all interested in the good health of American Citizens.
Our system is a travesty.
If all men (and women) are created equal and we are supposed to have certain inalienable rights in this country then why do we allow extreme capitalism into health care? It doesn’t belong there.
Affordable health care? For who?
John McCain with all due respect: allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines won’t bring the cost of health care down. It’s nonsense. The system is the problem: massive profits made on the backs of sick people. Enormous hospital bills that break the backs of anyone that is rejected for a procedure and held up on review until it’s too late or have no insurance, inadequate insurance, or (my personal favorite) one that “isn’t accepted here.” There needs to be a public option.
Compassionate conservatism indeed.
Human sacrifice made at the altar of health versus profit.
I think this very vocal group is more interested in pulling the plug on Barack Obama (and the democrats) than fixing health care or anything else.
And I have to wonder why.
Sigh.
