The White House is denying that a new Medicare regulation revives language dropped from the health care reform bill that covered voluntary end-of-life planning sessions between doctors and patients.
The policy was removed from the health care bill after Republicans and right-wing opponents of the bill construed the provision as creating “death panels” for old people.
The New York Times reported yesterday that beginning January 1st:
Under the new policy, outlined in a Medicare regulation, the government will pay doctors who advise patients on options for end-of-life care, which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment.
The Times writes that the new regulation would allow Medicare patients to outline an “advance directive” for their end-of-life care, whereas the health care bill only covered yearly visits for general exams.
Back during the health care debate, the concept of end-of-life care was turned into a meme by opponents of the bill who erroneously claimed that government bureaucrats would be able to decide whether to provide health care to the elderly, or “pull the plug on Grandma,” as Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) put it.
[TPM PHOTO FEATURES: The Evolution Of The Death Panel Meme]
But the White House downplayed the connection to the controversial language. Spokesman Reid Cherlin told the Wall Street Journal that the new regulation was actually signed into law under President Bush, and “the only thing new here is a regulation allowing the discussions … to happen in the context of the new annual wellness visit created by the Affordable Care Act.”
