Duty to Die, Redux

Former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm declared in March 1984, "We've got a duty to die and get out of the way with all of our machines and artificial hearts and everything else like that and let the other society, our kids, build a reasonable life." (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/29/us/gov-lamm-asserts-elderly-if-very-ill-have-duty-to-die.html) He claimed he was not referring to the elderly only as having this “duty to die,” however his saying that this duty is necessary so “our kids” can “build a reasonable life” puts the lie to that disclaimer. Perhaps Lamm also had in mind younger disabled people in the group with this “duty to die.”

Fast forward twenty-five years to what the Democrats in Congress are proposing in today’s health care reform. H.R. 3200, The American Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, has over eighty sections altering or reducing Medicare provider reimbursements. Estimated reductions, if this legislation were passed, would be $361.9 billion (Source: http://blog.heritage.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/lewin-house-bill-heritage.pdf.This would represent a ten percent reduction over a ten-year period at the same time that Medicare enrollment is expected to increase by thirty percent as baby boomers become eligible.

Specifically, Medicare reimbursements would be reduced by 267.6% to hospitals, 10.8% to physicians, 11.2% to home health agencies, and 37.4% to skilled nursing facilities. Reductions for prescription drugs would equal 34.8% (Source: Congressional Budget Office, July 8, 2009, Preliminary Estimate of the Effects on Direct Spending and Revenues of Division B, Titles I-VII and Section 1872, of the House Tri-Committee Health Reform Discussion Draft. ).

The inevitable result will be reduced supply of Medicare providers at a time of rapidly escalating demand. H.R. 3200 demands seniors bear an inordinate burden to pay for health care for younger and working Americans. Under H.R. 3200, seniors on Medicare can expect longer waits for doctor appointments and procedures or outright denial of services.

President Obama recently echoed Gov. Lamm, telling the aged “to consider hospice care instead of treatment.” Tom Daschle, Obama’s first choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services and an advisor on health care reform, wrote, "... Health-care reform will not be pain free. Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them" (Source: whitehouse.gov/assets/hero/hero_weeklyaddress_7-18-09_CK-0081.JPG).


Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel is Obama’s special health policy advisor. He openly advocated healthcare rationing to the elderly in a January 2009 article in the medical journal The Lancet. In the Hastings Center Report, he wrote it would be appropriate to deny health care to "individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens." He said an example would be “patients with dementia." Speaking of H.R. 3200, Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite (R-Florida) says "Despite their promise to care for our seniors, Democrats have decided that it's too expensive to care for my senior constituents and everyone else's constituents…in order to pay for the government expansion of healthcare for the young, the healthy, and the wealthy" (Source: http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=616402).

Clearly, Obama and the Democrats pushing their draconian health care reform think grandma and grandpa should find a nice iceberg and passively float away. No wonder they are so fearful of global warming. They will need all the icebergs they can get for us baby boomers in the next ten years if H.R. 3200 passes.