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USA Health Care

Pro-Life Advocates Ask Senate to Adopt Amendment to Stop Rationing of Health Care

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The first pro-life battle in the national health care reform debate is coming up in the Senate as soon as the end of the week. Burke Balch, the medical ethics director for the National Right to Life Committee talked with LifeNews.com about what pro-life people can do. The debate concerns the health care reform bill sponsored by Sen. Ted Kennedy that Balch says is concerning because it could lead to the rationing of lifesaving medical treatment. Balch says the Kennedy bill would lead to the cutting off of certain treatments that the government doesn't consider cost effective. He says the bill would employ a system similar to the "Quality of life years" system, or QALY, in England where payment for treatment is only authorized if it extends the quality of life not the length of life. Under such a system someone in a wheelchair is determined to have a lower quality of life compared with an able-bodied person. National Right to Life is asking pro-life advocates to support an amendment from pro-life Sen. Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, to the Kennedy bill that would say the government can't use that system to deny treatment to people on the basis of a disability or degree of medical dependency or quality of life. Enzi will offer the amendment as soon as Friday during the Senate HELP committee markup on the Kennedy health care bill and calls and emails are needed to urge support for it. Balch says National Right to Life is working with senators on the Senate Finance committee, including pro-life Sen. Charles Grassley, for a similar amendment to the companion bill that panel is crafting. The National Right to Life Committee is also working to ensure that the health care plan that comes out of Congress doesn't fund abortions or force insurance companies to cover abortions. NRLC executive director David O"Steen tells LifeNews.com that the plan will likely cover abortions and not be "Up front" about it and that the pro-abortion nature of the plan would be a part of it unless an "Overt" amendment is included making it abortion neutral.

Care Health USA

I think that all health care the government passes is given to all equally. To say that a person in a wheel chair does not need as much health care as a walking person is like saying the disabled are second class citizens. Are willing as americans to say that our disabled friends are to be treated unfairly. Why is the government trying to discriminate against the disabled?

USA Health Care Health & Special Psychology

Kathy the idiot caller

Glenn took a caller from Massachusetts named Kathy who seemed to love the idea of government run health care. After making the most idiotic statement (perhaps anyone has ever made to Glenn) "you don't care about the trillions of dollars to bail out the banks and all the credit card companies" but he complains about the trillions for health care. Glenn explains the situation in the state that is currently suffering from Romney Care. Ref. Source 6

Care Health USA

I am still waiting to hear how we are going to be able to pay for all of this. I wonder how we can pay for everything that people want and still be able to survive. Maybe letting the government go bankrupt will help us all. I have some ideas on how to fix all of this but I doubt that it would ever happen.

Care Health USA

Town Hall meetings get intense

The closer we get to having Universal Healthcare shoved down our throat, the more frustrated people get. Glenn reminds people to be heard, but most of all to be peaceful, no matter what the union thugs sent to these events do to provoke you. Glenn reacts to all the attention coming out of the healthcare town hall events. Ref. Source 9

USA Health Care

Barack Obama Defends Health Care Bill Against Rationing, Euthanasia Concerns

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In a town hall on Tuesday featuring mostly a sympathetic and friendly crowd, President Barack Obama defended the Congressional health care bills against concerns surrounding rationing and euthanasia. Obama essentially dismissed the concerns and called them scare tactics. At issue is Section 1233 of HR 3200, the government-run health care plan that the House will consider when it returns from its August recess. The measure would pay physicians to give Medicare patients end-of-life counseling every five years or sooner if the patient has a terminal diagnosis. While pro-life advocates say the section opens the door to physicians pushing euthanasia or withdrawal of lifesaving medical treatment, or even basic food and water, backers of the bill call the claims rubbish. Obama dismissed the critics who cite this section and said they were trying to "scare the heck out of folks" with "wild misrepresentations that don't bear any resemblance to anything that's actually being proposed." He said all the section does is authorize Medicare to pay physicians to counsel patients about end-of-life care such as living wills, hospice and other issues and to do son only if the patients request it. It would not "basically pull the plug on grandma because we decided that it's too expensive to let her live anymore," Obama said. He said Congress put the language in the bill and defended their decision saying lawmakers "very sensibly thought this was something that would expand people's options." Ref. Source 7

USA Health Care

Obama tackles healthcare critics

US President Barack Obama accuses opponents of his healthcare proposals of trying to "scare the heck" out of people. Ref. Source 9

USA Health Care Psychology Special & Health

The President's statement is laughable when you consider how his administration is attempting to scare people into supporting the plan.