It's More Than Just a Living Will

There has been some question after I wrote my article entitled "Saving Cost on Health Care" on whether the health care bill of the House of Representatives contains nothing more than some counseling for seniors to encourage them to get their documents in order and prepare a living will. The sections that I gleaned my information from are available for anyone to read. Simply go here and you'll find the entire House bill. If you want to look at the Senate bill go here.

To break the bill down so you can decide for yourself, I've provided a list of items (not the complete list) that I object to in the bill. All references are to the House Bill.

House Bill Page 425 to 428 This section indeed is telling what the mandatory counseling involves. There is nothing wrong with counseling on living wills and making decisions on steps to take and quality of life. It is a vital process we need to face as we get older even more so than someone of fewer years.

Notice on House Bill page 428 starting at line 20, even though the counseling is completed once, it's mandatory every 5 years. How many times do you need to decide the steps to take? It becomes particularly disturbing when you look at the top of page 429 and notice that if you're ill then it's required again as many times as necessary. Does this mean, that the counseling continues until the right decision, the one the government employee believes correct, is reached? By the way, the counselors are NOT doctors and may not even have medical training. They are employees of the government, the same entity that is paying for the treatment. Include in this the fact that because of the expense of this bill, Medicare will be cut by 10% (Even though there's 30% more seniors soon to be on the plan) you begin to see why the seniors are requested to reconsider how badly they want to live. Are you starting to get suspicious yet?

Continue down page 429 and you'll notice that the order to sustain life has to be signed by a physician. Today, you have to have notarized documents to show that you don't want hydration, antibiotics or nutrition, here the document to receive those items must be signed.

House Bill Page 442 Shared decision making. At first you thought you got to make the entire decision on whether you live or die, but this section says, that's just not true. It's a collaborative decision. There is absolutely no wording that says the patient has the final say in the decision. Without this wording, the wishes of the patient can be taken into consideration and like a parent taking their child's wishes into consideration, the final decision is still theirs. In this case, the theirs refers to the government agent.

Other Considerations

You keep your own plan. Not true. You keep your own plan until there's any change in the plan such as deductible, benefits or other changes you see each year when the new plan comes out. This is true of both personal and work plans. (HB page 16-17)

You'll have a penalty if you can't prove you have health insurance. The bill requires that all people be able to show proof of health insurance or pay a fine when they pay taxes. (HB page 167-168)

While you must pay and show proof of insurance, non-resident aliens do not have to and yet can receive services according to other bills. (HB page 170)

There is not wording that gives the right to make decisions for health care to the individual receiving the care. Without this wording we are turning our very lives over to interested parties, parties that see only $$ rather than situations. You may think that personal decision in the matter is meant and now that may be true but what about the future. Unless your rights are in black and white, you have NONE! Even then, they're still up to a judges interpretation.