One of the most revolting things about the current debate about health care reform is the claim by Sarah Palin and others that reimbursing doctors under Medicare for end-of-life counseling would somehow create federal "death panels" that would kill her baby with Down Syndrome and others. To almost any rational person, especially those with experience in the difficult choices associated with end-of-life and disability care decisions, such claims are both pathetic and dangerous...as Jon Stewart put it recently, "crazy".| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Healther Skelter | ||||
| ||||
What's equally bizarre is that Sarah Palin as Alaska's Governor on April 16, 2008 issued a proclamation stressing the importance of end-of-life counseling on the Alaska declared "Health Care Decisions Day", which also included a call for government involvement because of "both a lack of knowledge and considerable confusion in the public about Advance Directives."
The complete text follows:
State of Alaska > Governor > Proclamations > Proclamations Archive
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.
Dated: April 16, 2008
Healthcare Decisions Day, April 16, 2008 Official Proclamation from the Office of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin
Despite a huge state budget surplus, Palin's Alaska underfunded a state agency charged with providing assisted living services to seniors allowing them to stay in their homes, even though more than 60% of the cost of the program was paid for by federal dollars. The program was rife with mismanagement and incompetence, eventually creating the need for a federal intervention before Palin left office in 2009 after hundreds of Alaskan seniors had died while on waiting lists for assessments from state nurses, creating both major health care problems for seniors and an increasing number of lawsuits filed against the state. In 2008 the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the state had improperly cut off or reduced benefits to more than 1,000 Alaskan seniors. Alaska was the only state in which the federal government needed to intervene, requiring a moratorium on new applications to the program while a huge backlog of cases was resolved and management and operations drastically improved.
Anchorage Daily News - "Troubled Alaska health programs face federal restriction"
Sarah The Crazy even went so far as to completely mischaracterize Washington Post writer Eugene Robinson on her latest Facebook missive, "Even columnist Eugene Robinson, a self-described "true believer" who "will almost certainly support" "whatever reform package finally emerges", agrees that "If the government says it has to control health-care costs and then offers to pay doctors to give advice about hospice care, citizens are not delusional to conclude that the goal is to reduce end-of-life spending." What Palin failed to include was Robinson's next sentence specifically pointing to her as a primary source of misinformation, which read "It's irresponsible for politicians, such as Sarah Palin, to claim -- outlandishly and falsely -- that there's going to be some kind of "death panel" to decide when to pull the plug on Aunt Sylvia.", as Robinson reiterated on MSNBC's "Countdown".
Daily Kos details Palin's Facebook lies and misinformation.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
The only competition here is for which one is worst...the raging hypocrisy, outright lies, or the incompetence of the program under federal intervention in Alaska.
No comments:
Post a Comment