I am beginning to think one can make a career out of debunking the nonsense e-mails that people believe and pass along or perhaps there is a fortune to be made writing this garbage.
In any case, here is the latest (unedited). Need I state emphatically that none of this is true or even logical? It is rather another attempt by ignorant people to undermine the affordable care act without the slightest understanding of what it is and is not. Apparently the caller, also called other conservative talk shows as I heard a recording from the Mark Levine show as well.
The Bogus E-Mail
Folks,
Before I finally decided to write this I had to think about it for some time as I know you are busy with the Thanksgiving day upon us but I felt it was important enough to write about it anyway.
I was listening to the Jerry Doyle radio program and he received a call from a listener that was completely different than the subject being discussed. Before Jerry Doyle allowed the caller on the air he had his call screener verify the callers credentials. The caller was a Neuro Surgeon and he had just completed a seminar in Washington DC which included a talk from a government official who was part of the set up team implementing the new Health Care Plan. He said they were told by this government official that starting in 2014 that anyone at the age of 70 or older with a major medical problem such as a stroke, heart attack or brain aneurysm as examples and will require an operation that the doctor will have to obtain approval from a government commission before the doctor can operate. He also said that the patient will be called a unit, not a patient. The commission will consider the age, other medical problems and cost before authorizing the operation on the unit. If the commission, who by the way are NOT doctors, deny the operation the only thing the doctor will be authorized to do is to – ready for this – make the unit as comfortable as possible until death. If the doctor operates anyway fines and sanctions would be taken against the doctor.
It wasn’t but a couple of minutes when Jerry Doyle received another call from another doctor who had been at the same seminar who verified what the previous doctor had said. This doctor added that the question was asked if this was the death panel that some had said was in the health care bill and the answer was, “We do not consider this a death panel but one of the ways they are going to reduce medical costs”. Both doctors said that they asked where they could go to read about this and they both said that there will not be anything published until the Health Care Bill is fully operational starting in 2014. That will be when all of the rules and requirements will become the law and made public. They were also told that none of this will apply to past, present and future congressional officials or those in the executive branch which past, present and future Presidents and Vice Presidents. When the health care bill was written this was one of two (2) exceptions. The second exception was – better be ready for this one also – ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS! The rational behind this is being they are NOT United States Citizens that the law will not apply as it will only apply to United States Citizens or those in our country legally.
I know that some of you will read this and some won’t, some will believe this and some won’t but I hope that all of you do read this and believe it as I believe it is true. I have not heard anything else about this since the two doctors called Jerry Doyle’s radio program but there is no doubt that it won’t be long until the word about this gets out and hopefully this will help to terminate the so called health care bill. If you vote PLEASE vote intelligently as your life WILL depend on it this election.
If you want the facts on the only commission mentioned in the affordable care act including its mission and what it can and cannot do, go to this post on my blog. The death panel, take a closer look
While the above e-mail is rubbish, the fact is that Medicare spends nearly 30 percent of its budget on beneficiaries in their final year of life. Slightly more than half of Medicare dollars are spent on patients who die within two months… and that must change if we have any hope of managing costs.
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