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GOP Backed 'Death Panels' ...in 2003

End-of-life counseling provided in Medicare bill

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 14, 2009 2:10 PM CDT
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(Newser) – They’re up in arms against it now, but Republicans voted for a measure providing end-of-life counseling in 2003, Amy Sullivan writes for Time. That year’s Medicare prescription drug bill, which boasted support from 204 GOP representatives and 42 senators, offered funding for “counseling the beneficiary with respect to end-of-life issues and care options”—a provision very similar to the current proposal's.

The difference, Sullivan notes, is that the older measure “applied only to terminally ill patients”; Section 1233, now being tossed around, would fund counseling before people get sick. “So either Republicans were for death panels in 2003 before turning against them now—or they're lying about end-of-life counseling in order to frighten the bejeezus out of their fellow citizens and defeat health reform by any means necessary.”

Randy Hook, 50, of Hopewell, Pa., right, questions Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., during a town hall meeting on health care in a Penn State University ballroom in State College, Pa., Aug. 12, 2009.
Randy Hook, 50, of Hopewell, Pa., right, questions Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., during a town hall meeting on health care in a Penn State University ballroom in State College, Pa., Aug. 12, 2009.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, questions Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor during testimony on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 15, 2009.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, questions Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor during testimony on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 15, 2009.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 23 comments
Shannonals
Aug 16, 2009 5:35 AM CDT
Jayster999 Why even come online if your going to kid around all the time? I'm, quite sure you have inteeligent comments to make, yet you go out of your way to alienate people
Snarfeh
Aug 15, 2009 6:51 AM CDT
Hell, the republican party IS a death panel. They became one in 2003 when they sent our men and women to die in Iraq for oil and war profiteering. And I'm not making a joke. I consider them the death party because of that invasion.
cognitivefilter
Aug 15, 2009 5:09 AM CDT
not quite a 'death panel'.....as if going to the dentist was an 'anxiety theme park'

 
health care • Congress • Senate Republicans • Charles Grassley • health care reform • medical care • House Republicans • Congressional Republicans • death panel • end-of-life care

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