Hopefully the spin cycle on that minute segment of the massive HR-3200 health reform bill is over. Yes, there goes the buzzer.
Whew! Back when I first commented on it it seemed intriguing, even if a bit Out There. Then it hit the fan big time and I looked a little harder. Yep, just politicos grasping at straws.
“The controversy,” explains Ceci Connolly of the Washington Post, “stems from a proposal to pay physicians who counsel elderly or terminally ill patients about what medical interventions they would prefer near the end of life and how to prepare instructions such as living wills.” Apparently it was this counseling provision that offered a straw for hysteria mongers to grasp. The article concludes with a quote from Tia Powell, Director of the Montefiore-Einstein Center for Bioethics: “If you get people in an environment of their own choosing, where there is support and good pain control, it is very likely to extend their lives.”
Nuff said? After all, this site is more venting than political discussion. Which isn’t to say caregivers aren’t directly affected by health care trends. My mother-in-law, for instance, is constantly in upheavel over providers. She is covered by military dependent insurance rather than Medicare and it seems fewer and fewer doctors and facilities are accepting it. At first it was convenient enough, as long as one doc or another in Galveston would take it. But one by one they either stopped, died, or moved their offices. It wasn’t too bad when there were still a few just over the Causeway on the mainland. At this writing, however, it’s a 30-mile drive if the PCP wants her to see a specialist. Quite an investment of time, money, and wear-and-tear for a caregiver!
cluelesscaregiver
