The Right Prescription
Obamacare’s Shovel-Ready Cure
Newsweek’s editorial death panel has endorsed it.
I thought we were supposed to think that Sarah Palin was nuts for bringing up “death panels.”
Now a few weeks later the cover of Newsweek has a giant plug on it, unplugged, accompanied by a super-sized headline: “The Case for Killing Granny: Curbing Excessive End-of-Life Care Is Good for America.” The article is by Evan Thomas, a Newsweek editor-at-large.
Right below that cover headline is the title of a second article on the same subject by Jon Meacham, Newsweek’s editor: “I Was a Teenage Death Panelist.”
Inside, Meacham explains, “Our cover this week is of course hyperbolic.” The editors aren’t yet nominating Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, President Obama’s special adviser on health policy and brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, for the top job on a plug-pulling panel.
Dr. Emanuel is the one who explained why it isn’t discrimination to discriminate against older people in favor of the young when it comes to the government’s distribution of health care dollars.
“Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocation by age is not invidious discrimination; every person lives through different life stages rather than being a single age. Even if 25-year-olds receive priority over 65-year-olds, everyone who is 65 years now was previously 25 years.”
That’s like saying that a transgendered individual, now a woman, shouldn’t complain about sexism because she was once a man. Wacky, but that seems to be the kind of thinking that guys like Dr. Emanuel pick up at Harvard in order to be more avant-garde than the dummy-dominated hoi polloi.
In Dr. Emanuel’s case, he got a quadruple overdose of Harvard-think, receiving his M.D. from Harvard Medical School, a Ph.D. in political philosophy from Harvard, then sticking around as a fellow in the Program in Ethics and the Professions at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, followed by a stint as an associate professor at Harvard Medical School.
Emanuel is saying that a 25-year-old who hurts himself jumping over a wall into the United States from Mexico gets a new knee from the taxpayers before a 65-year-old who’s paid into the system her whole life because the younger person has more years of life ahead of him to enjoy.
“Americans do spend an inordinate amount of money (30 percent of Medicare, for instance) on care in the last six months of life,” writes Meacham, pointing out that “R. Sean Morrison of the National Palliative Care Research Center estimates that we could save $6 billion a year if we better matched treatments to patient goals and wishes during serious illness and at the end of life.”
We saw how the central planners put together their goal of saving money with alleged “patient goals and wishes” in their “Your Life, Your Choices” booklet at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The publication, canceled by the Bush White House but resurrected by the Obama administration, asks veterans in hospitals and nursing homes whether their lives would be “not worth living” under various scenarios.
Answer in agreement to too many statements like “I can no longer contribute to my family’s well being,” “My situation causes a severe emotional burden for my family,” and “I am a severe financial burden on my family,” and a bureaucrat with an eye on the red ink might well report up the line to the plug-pullers that the patient, himself, has decided that it’s time for a shovel-ready solution.
Meacham calls the money saved by getting rid of these patients a “post-hope dividend.” The $6 billion a year in estimated savings referred to above is equal to 1.1 percent of Obama’s non-stimulating $800 billion stimulus package.
The estimate of $6 billion per year that we might squeeze out of patients by hitting them with enough guilt-inducing and depressing questions is also equal to the amount of red ink and debt that the D.C. politicians are piling up every day and a half by way of this year’s federal deficit.
Still, Newsweek’s Thomas sees granny as the super-buster of the budget. “The need to spend less money on the elderly at the end of life is the elephant in the room in the health-reform debate,” he writes. “Everyone sees it but no one wants to talk about it.”
Wrong. We are talking about it, and the more we talk, the more we’re seeing that it’s not granny who is the elephant.
About the Author
Ralph R. Reiland is the B. Kenneth Simon professor of free enterprise and an associate professor of economics at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (31) | Leave a comment
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Karibou Kid| 9.29.09 @ 6:30AM
These people are ghouls. Zeke should read the Hippocratic oath which he has obviously not taken.
Darin| 9.29.09 @ 7:07AM
Karibou Kid,
I've heard doctors no longer take the Hippocratic oath, probably because it doesn't conform with the "reality" with which they must comply (e.g., a doctor who performs abortions). Any recently-licensed doctors have more info on this?
Big J| 9.29.09 @ 8:14AM
"post-hope dividend."? Are you kidding me?
Not that I would consider using an issue of Newsweak magazine to wipe my backside in a bind, but this is ridiculous.
The so-called mainstream media have been carrying the liberal establishment's water for as long as I can remember. Fortunately, as a direct result of access to sites like The American Spectator, American Thinker and many, many others, we're not buying it anymore.
There's your "post-hope dividend".
Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 9.29.09 @ 10:27AM
Big J: You're right on the money about the MSM (like Newsweek). I won't even read that rag, if I found it lying around, and I was completely bored.
I haven't watched the “Big-3” newscast's for well over a year now. When it finally dawned on me, that they're completely in the tank with the "one" party (it took me awhile to really believe it).
Now if I want to get my news, I'm reading it from this site, or American Thinker, and a few others too (Dakota Voice). And I'm noticing a trend now, it's several weeks after a story breaks on these sites, that it finally appears in the MSM, but only for the fact that they can't ignore the story any longer (no integrity). It's sad really, to think that the best investigative reporters, are now on conservative websites.
I patiently count down the days until, the New York Times, Newsweek, 60 Minutes, and the like close their doors forever, we don't need them anymore.
Appleby| 9.29.09 @ 10:17AM
As people live longer and longer lives, impatient former hippies get more and more desperate to get their hands on granny's cash before she selfishly spends it all on herself. I have a cousin who stopped speaking to her mother (who is now 99) years ago when said cousin realized Mama was going to outlive daughter's presumed "entitlement" to an inheritance.
I smacked down a younger sister years ago for speculating whether she should buy her own dining room set or wait for our parents to die so she could get theirs. Being the executrix, I told her to cease that kind of talk or she would inherit the back of my hand.
Nevertheless, I am sure there is more than a little appeal to personal greed involved in "pulling the plug on [your well-off relative here]" rhetoric. Watch for them to start playing on that harp next.
Ray| 9.29.09 @ 10:33AM
"The need to spend less money on the elderly at the end of life is the elephant in the room in the health-reform debate"
I guess it all depends on the ability of the health care recipient to produce things that benefit society and not the intrinsic value of a Human life. Isn't that right, Liberals? That's why an unborn child isn't "really' human and should be aborted, because it doesn't produce anything that benefits society. Now the elderly, who also doesn't produce anything that benefits society, should be refused critical medical care and allowed to die, for the good of society. Isn't that right, liberals?
According to those compassionate liberals, we should now judge a life by it's ability to produce wealth for the benefit of society and not judge a life on it's intrinsic value. Intrinsic value doesn't count any more. Humans are no longer equal. They are only as valuable as their contributions to society as a whole. So much for being Humane. So much for being compassionate.
Bob Miller| 9.29.09 @ 10:58AM
When a formerly vibrant, respected news magazine like Newsweek has aged to a point that its memory, judgment, and veracity have all gone to ruin, a compassionate person would look at its dismal future and ask that its publishers pull the plug. Spare Newsweek any further embarrassment.
R Martin| 9.29.09 @ 11:00AM
Those of us who have pets and accept the obligation to care for them know full well that end of life medical care is often very expensive. Still, most of us dig deep to pay those bills in hopes of extending time with a loved companion. I think people in a health care system of whatever stripe deserve to be treated as well as dogs.
haldren| 9.29.09 @ 11:12AM
Has Dr Emanuel ever seen a patient in his life?
Son Of Sam | 9.29.09 @ 11:13AM
When the editors of Newsweek are old and in need of care, will they change their minds then? Or are they are already being complete hypocrites, advocating for others what they themselves will never consent to do? Either way, they sound a lot like all the jackasses in Congress who are voting on a health care "reform" which THEY THEMSELVES will never have to be a part of. They gots theirs -- tough nerts for all the rest of you damned peasants
"We're ObamaNazis -- do as we say, not as we do"
stand strong until freedom dawns
Son Of Sam
http://www.samadamssos.bravehost.com/
Ken (Old Texican)| 9.29.09 @ 1:54PM
You know, guys, the one irony I cannot get around is the three year "pause" before this bill takes effect in 2013.
Our only chance for America as we have known her are 2010 elections.....period!
Get involved, get busy, find your candidates, then put their feet to the fire if elected.
Kurt| 9.29.09 @ 6:29PM
Yes, but let's remember that the Democrats & the Republicans created this mess, a long time ago. Any program devised by the Federal Government is created and executed with arrogance and hubris, then ending in folly. Hold every congressmans feet to the fire. Re-elect nobody.
Oldefarte| 9.29.09 @ 3:08PM
Hopefully, beginning with the 2010 congressional elections, we GREY-BEARDS who have funded the Federal coffers [to support the indigent, career-welfare recipients] our entire lifetimes will see the government defunding/'discrimination' of the unemployed ME-ME-ME generation; the Hollywood/transvistite crowd; the moronic, univeristy-elite imbiciles; the southern border illegals demanding citizenship/government benefits;etc. It way past time that we eliminated any/all politicians who play footsie with their socialists-handlers, ruin this country; and elect those who will do our work and answer to our legitimate demands!!!!!
Kurt| 9.29.09 @ 6:31PM
The only legitimate demand is for them to get the hell out of our life! And protect us from invaders.
Curtis Rasmussen| 9.29.09 @ 3:41PM
I remember the real estate leeches that wanted to get their hands on my parent's house after my father passed away. They would call, expressing their condolences and regret before happily asking mom if she was ready to sell.
Now the bottom feeders are in Congress. The only difference is they no longer have to ask to take the hard work and contributions of the elderly. They'll take it by killing you.
Kurt| 9.29.09 @ 6:33PM
They'll take it any way they can get it-if you resist they will kill you.
Curtis Rasmussen| 9.29.09 @ 7:42PM
More to the point: They'll force your to pay into a system that you don't want, only to deny you access to it after decades of involuntary contribution.
Sounds like robbery to me.
Johnny Knuckles| 9.29.09 @ 4:08PM
Public healthcare is a sucker's bet. Sure the 25-year benefits. But a 25-year-old usually doesn't need it. After a lifetime of high taxes and when he needs it most, it's not there.
In Canada, if you're over 70, without family, and in the hospital for anything remotely life-threatening, you're toast.
Kurt| 9.29.09 @ 6:35PM
A form of public healthcare got us in this mess to begin with-Medicare. Any government program is a suckers bet/ponzi scheme, unless you are the benifiting parasite.
Gregg | 10.3.09 @ 8:24PM
See the CNN news story: 47% will pay no federal income tax!
And, the filthy beggars are now wanting us that do to pay for their health-care.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/3.....tm?cnn=yes
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