CLOates
15 AUG 2009
Last Rev.: 19 Aug 2009
Norman, Oklahoma, USA
May We Debate the ISSUES, Please?
The crazies and the propagandists have, as usual, come crawling out of the woodwork in an effort to derail the overhaul of the current U.S. (non-)health care system, a bizarre aggregation of practices that will soon leave virtually anyone who needs medical care in the U.S. unable to obtain it--unless, of course, they happen to spend an entire career working for an unbroken string of Fortune 500 corporations, a pattern that seldom occurs for most of us.
More or less as expected, we have the Democrats trying to provide everyone with health care and having trouble finding the funding, while the Republicans try to scare the hell out of everyone by dragging out the fear phrase book containing old standards like "socialized medicine," "government take-over," and "health care rationing" (what on earth do you call the current system when it effectively throws about 1/6th of the U.S. population under the bus when they need care--that's a pretty severe form of rationing, I'd say, but I digress).
The level of discussion reached a new height of irrelevance recently, however, when those trying to create fear and panic dreamed up Federal "Death Panels" to decide who should live and who should die in medical contexts. (See, for example, http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090813/pl_politico/26078 .) This horror fantasy is purported to be somehow based on Section 1233, Advance Care Planning Consultation, of H.R. 3200, the comprehensive health care bill currently before the House of Representatives. (See http://frwebgate.access.gp..o.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?d..bname=111_cong_bills&docid..=f:h3200ih.pdf , a large .pdf file, starting on page 424 for the text of the bill and its Section 1233. BTW, official copies of all legislation pending in Congress can be accessed through the search facilities athttp://www.gpoaccess.gov/bills/index.html . Try it with "comprehensive health care" for the search phrase.)
It takes a few minutes to read the text of Section 1233, but even a cursory inspection reveals that it is aimed at permitting the health care system to pay physicians for a periodic medical consultation with patients on use of advance health care directives like living wills and durable powers of attorney that express the PATIENT'S desires for end-of-life care, should they become unable to express those wishes for themselves, as sometimes happens in cases of head injury, dementia, Alzheimer's, and many terminal illnesses.
These health care directives have been in use for decades--Sue and I made ours in 1993--and give the patient the CHOICE of, for instance, whether they want feeding tubes used if they enter a persistent vegetative state and other such horrendous situations. No one is or will be required to make such directives, and the directives can be revoked at any time while one is competent. If no directive exists, the default action is to do absolutely everything to keep the patient alive as long as possible without much, if any, regard to quality of life issues. If this is what the patient wants, they need do nothing with respect to health care directives and nothing in the proposed legislation requires it. If the patient considers the all-out approach a form of medical torture, and I certainly have seen it become just that, the patient MAY choose to direct physicians to use less than all-out means in the situations THEY (the patient) designate. It's the PATIENT'S choice, not that of some non-existent and non-proposed Federal "Death Panel."
With hundreds of millions of people's lives, economic fortunes, and physical well-being at stake, it is time to formulate a working U.S. health care system to replace the non-sustainable, non-working, citizen-bankrupting mess that now exists. Reasonable people can certainly disagree over how that is to be accomplished, and well-thought-out debate can result in a better system than any one individual can create alone. However, use of propaganda techniques like the "Death Panel" straw-man is decidedly un-helpful, is likely to backfire, and has no legitimate place in the workings of a democracy.
Can we behave like grown-ups and conduct a serious debate about a very serious topic, rather than engage in antics more often associated with high schoolers at Boys'/Girls' State? It remains to be seen. (http://www.txlegion.org/boys_state.htm)
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You can help. Visit sites such as http://www.propagandacritic.com/ to arm yourself with information about propaganda techniques, and learn to recognize their use in political debate. Use critical thinking skills when listening and reading the pronouncements of stakeholders in the health care debate. Get the facts about what's being proposed from the original sources, the U.S. Congress in this case, using the links supplied earlier. Talk with others about the ISSUES, not fear-mongers' fantasies, and contribute to the long over-due creation of a workable, sustainable U.S. health system. I wish you good luck for all our sakes!
Prof. Oates
P.S. Since I gave Sara Palin's views a plug earlier, I'll put a link to the views of Pres. Obama here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/ . --CLO
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Grandpa/Prof. Oates Chuck Oates |
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