Skip to main content

End of life counseling: Resolute Obfuscation strikes out again

Posted by Homegrown Boy:

Section 1233. Kind of an Orwellian tinge to it.

Well it is Orwellian for it refers to the end of life counseling sick seniors will get from the state run medical society if it passes. (cmon angry Brooks Brothers mobsters – make my day)

It refers to financial incentives for agreeing to die.

Please note the well to do with educated kids will be there to intervene but the poor and uneducated will be told it’s all good and the plug will get pulled.


Utter horseshit, and Nancy Willing has already replied to it there.

On the off chance, however, that HGB is truly just ignorant and not posturing with talking points, let's visit Thaddeus Pope at Medical Futility Blog and find out what the last decade of research into end-of-life counseling has actually found:

Peer-reviewed, published studies [are[ establishing that end-of-life consultations improve care. Among other points made in the linked articles:

End-of-life discussions decrease suffering and distress for patients and loved ones

Hospice patients live longer

Inability to participate in treatment decisions can cause patients uncertainty and distress

87% of patients say they “want as much information as possible”

Patients want doctors to communicate with them about their treatment options


There are--as I make the count--four ways HGB could choose to react to the information that his beliefs are not upheld by the research:

1) He could, in the face of new data, modify his beliefs. [Did I mention this was the least likely outcome?]

2) He might challenge the reliability, validity, or objectivity of the studies. [But to do that--rather than just to make some vague ideological point that he doesn't trust liberal academics--he would not only have to link through multiple times, read the studies, and then educate himself on what reliability and validity mean as statistical terms.]

3) He might make dark references to the fact that the government will use thought-wave transference and kidnapping of family members to influence doctors who have cared for these patients for years into being willing to urge them just to pull the plug so that they can get their death bonuses and pay for their new Mercedes.

4) He could just ignore the fact that somebody challenged him with data and keep talking louder and louder.

Point of clarification: the fact that I am pointing out that end-of-life counseling in the current versions of the health insurance reform bill is not a dire government plot to kill granny is not to be construed as an endorsement of the bill. It is to be construed as a statement that when I oppose provisions of the bill, or the process by which it is being crafted, I will try to do so using actual facts instead of shit I just made up.

Comments

Nancy Willing said…
Just looked back over at the RD site and it looks like Copeland has bought into the machiner rather than expound the truth.

This will carry over with him into any campaign he should aspire to win.
Hube said…
But even some Dems are worried about the financial incentives in that section.

And while I concur about your analysis of "end-of-life" consultations, I must say I am flummoxed by your seeming non-chalant attitude that the government would be involved in such ... and also considering some of the characters in Obama's admin.
Hube said…
Oh, really Nance? Will it follow Copeland around? I wouldn't talk about "buying into" anything if I were you, considering the horseshit posted on your site on a regular basis. Cripes.
Mike W. said…
I'm with Hube. I don't like the financial incentives for doctors that's attached to the end of life counseling part of the bill.

The government need not be involved in that at all, as it's something that should be purely between the physician & patient.

That said, the more vocal opponents of Obamacare are turning this into something it's not. It's no evil government plot to kill off the elderly.

As a comparison, should doctors be given a financial incentive to insist on abortions? Of course not. I don't want the government giving financial incentives that pressure physicians into particular methods of care.
Mike Vine said…
"Point of clarification: the fact that I am pointing out that end-of-life counseling in the current versions of the health insurance reform bill is not a dire government plot to kill granny is not to be construed as an endorsement of the bill. It is to be construed as a statement that when I oppose provisions of the bill, or the process by which it is being crafted, I will try to do so using actual facts instead of shit I just made up."

But the government doesn't mind using shit they just made up!

Forward Vision @
www.mikevine.com
But the government doesn't mind using shit they just made up!

I have always said I have higher standards than the government.

Popular posts from this blog

The Obligatory Libertarian Tax Day Post

The most disturbing factoid that I learned on Tax Day was that the average American must now spend a full twenty-four hours filling out tax forms. That's three work days. Or, think of it this way: if you had to put in two hours per night after dinner to finish your taxes, that's two weeks (with Sundays off). I saw a talking head economics professor on some Philly TV channel pontificating about how Americans procrastinate. He was laughing. The IRS guy they interviewed actually said, "Tick, tick, tick." You have to wonder if Governor Ruth Ann Minner and her cohorts put in twenty-four hours pondering whether or not to give Kraft Foods $708,000 of our State taxes while demanding that school districts return $8-10 million each?

New Warfare: I started my posts with a discussion.....

.....on Unrestricted warfare . The US Air force Institute for National Security Studies have developed a reasonable systems approach to deter non-state violent actors who they label as NSVA's. It is an exceptionally important report if we want to deter violent extremism and other potential violent actors that could threaten this nation and its security. It is THE report our political officials should be listening to to shape policy so that we do not become excessive in using force against those who do not agree with policy and dispute it with reason and normal non-violent civil disobedience. This report, should be carefully read by everyone really concerned with protecting civil liberties while deterring violent terrorism and I recommend if you are a professional you send your recommendations via e-mail at the link above so that either 1.) additional safeguards to civil liberties are included, or 2.) additional viable strategies can be used. Finally, one can only hope that politici

More of This, Please

Or perhaps I should say, "Less of this one, please." Or how about just, "None of them. Ever again. Please....For the Love of God." Sunshine State Poll: Grayson In Trouble The latest Sunshine State/VSS poll shows controversial Democratic incumbent Alan Grayson trailing former state Senator Dan Webster by seven points, 43 percent to 36 percent. A majority of respondents -- 51 percent -- disapprove of the job that Grayson is doing. Independents have an unfavorable view of him as well, by a 36/47 margin. Grayson has ignored the conventional wisdom that a freshman should be a quiet member who carefully tends to the home fires. The latest controversy involves his " Taliban Dan " advertisement, where he explicitly compares his opponent to the Taliban, and shows a clip of Webster paraphrasing Ephesians 5:22 -- "wives, submit to your husbands." An unedited version of the clip shows that Webster was actually suggesting that husba