Healthcare bill still surrounded by controversy

Dissenters use section 1233 scare tactic

Even though it has been explained many times that HR 3200, the health care bill, does not encourage euthanasia, radical opposers of health care reform can’t help but use this radical argument. They claim that the HR 3200 bill, specifically section 1233, provides financial incentives for doctors to advocate pulling the plug on patients.

If this sounds outlandish and unbelievable, it’s because it’s not true. If you look at it from a commonsense standpoint, hospitals and doctors stand to make a whole lot more money from living patients than they do from dead ones. Financially, the most lucrative thing a hospital can do is keep the patient alive for as long as possible.

Examining health care bill claims

Though it would be easy for me to throw my hands in the air and say "These claims don’t make any sense! Ignore them!" and leave it at that, I know better than to think that people will listen to someone who specializes in online loan education when talking about health care reform.

So, let’s take a look at exactly what opposers of section 1233 are saying. Specifically, they are saying that because doctors are paid for end-of-life consultation, there is a financial incentive to give these end-of-life consultations. Okay, that makes sense. But end-of-life consultations are not a new thing. Doctors have had “financial incentives,” if that’s the way you want to look at it, to conduct end-of-life consultations forever.

Helping the poor

The only difference HR 3200, section 1233 makes is that Medicare will now cover those end-of-life consultations. Health care reform is about providing high quality healthcare to those who don't get insurance though their employers and whose incomes don’t allow them to get pricey, private health insurance. Section 1233 simply allows patients covered by Medicare to be able to afford something that only wealthier people can afford now.

People on Medicare deserve education, consultation and help writing their wills and information about all of the different options they have regarding long-term care. The hangup here is that American citizens do have the option of requesting a pull-the-plug order. This is also not a new option, as most people know. In America, any individual is allowed to decide under what circumstances they would like to be taken off of life support machines.

Fighting the wrong issue

So, the real problem here is that people are opposed to paying doctors to inform patients that they have this right. Pro-life advocates simply don’t want people to be aware of this right because they are opposed to it. Unfortunately, because of their opposition to plug pulling, which is neither encouraged nor discouraged in HR 3200, they are trying to take down the entire healthcare reform bill.

This bill will help 46 million uninsured Americans and has the potential to make health care and health insurance more affordable for everyone in the country. But as usual it’s the politics, not the policies, that are dictating discourse on this bill. Plenty of legislation has been defeated because of one small provision that angered loud groups who advocate for a separate, and only barely related, issue.