Posted by
Glenn Flowers on Monday, August 17, 2009 1:38:22 PM
TEACH ME HOW THE BILL DOESN’T PULL GRANNY’S PLUG
All the Obama supporters are saying that we need to discuss health care reform in a constructive, bipartisan, cooperative manner. Well, I’m willing to give it a go. I’ve read the bill and believe it allows doctors to "pull the plug on Granny". You folks say it doesn’t. Here is your chance to teach a conservative what you know.
I am open minded, but don’t trust politicians very much. If you don’t tell them what they can’t do, they will do it.
I do, for the most part, trust Americans. So, teach me.
It is these five questions about Sect 1233. ADVANCED CARE PLANNING CONSULTATION. Pages 424-434, that make us conservatives believe in the possibility that Granny could have her plug pulled. Prove to us that this bill doesn’t allow it.
- Can you show me where the bill prevents a doctor from issuing and signing an "order for life sustaining treatment" that denies treatment to a patient?
- Where in Sect 1233, or anywhere in the bill, does it say that the wishes of the patient, on the order for life sustaining treatment, must be carried out in all cases?
- What kind of legal barriers need to be addressed in a state, as mentioned on Page 427 paragraph (ii), sub-paragraph (I), to enable an order for life sustaining treatment?
- Why is it that a doctor must sign the order to make it legal, but the patient isn’t required to sign?
- What directives are available to the patient in Sect. 1866(f)(3) as mentioned on Page 430 in paragraph (iv)?
- Why is the patient limited to those directives in Sect. 1866(f)(3)?
When a patient’s choices for life saving treatment are limited in ways not defined,
When there’s no requirement that the patient’s wishes be followed,
When the patient’s signature isn’t required on the order,
When nothing prohibits a doctor from signing an order preventing life saving treatment,
When state laws have to be changed to allow an order to be put into effect,
Then it is possible that a doctor could be forced, under this bill, to withhold life saving medical care and let a ptient die in order to save money.
There are no state laws in existence anywhere preventing a doctor from saving a patient’s life. There are state laws, though, that prohibit doctors from knowingly allowing a patient to die if they can prevent it. It is my opinion, and nothing in the bill says anything different, that the state laws the bill says need to be overcome are state penal codes for murder.
If anyone can alleviate these fears, I, and many more like myself, would greatly appreciate it.