As we’ve noted in this space in the past – while no health insurance provider has a room with the words “Death Panel” on an embossed brass plate on the door, the notion of allocation of services, including life-saving ones, to make sure scarce supplies of life-extending medicine and treatment go to the people who’ll gain the most usable lifespan, has been around for a long time. \u00a0It’s an integral part of the HMO business model.<\/p>\n
In other words, if they’ve got one liver available, and one person on the transplant list is a 32 year old marathon-running woman who’s never smoked, and one is a 62 year old diabetic smoker, you can guess who’s going to get the liver, and who’s going on “palliative care” right?<\/p>\n
And while that decision may not be made by people whose job title says “Death Panelist”, if you’re the 62 year old diabetic, it’s all tomayto tomahto, right?<\/p>\n
Anyway – to those who thought calling the above the equivalent of a “death panel’ was overreach, I present this<\/a>:<\/p>\n About one-year ago, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the state\u2019s assisted-suicide bill<\/a> into law. It fully went into effect this June, with the opening of the first clinic<\/a>. While there is no data on the number of California assisted-suicides, Oregon recorded over 130 last year<\/a> as part of their legalized physician-assisted death program.<\/p>\n Now, one young mother says her insurance company denied her coverage for chemotherapy treatment after originally agreeing to provide the fiscal support for it, but indicated it would be willing to pay for assisted suicide<\/a> instead.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n No, it’s not just one woman:<\/p>\n Packer<\/a> attends meetings with others suffering from terminal illnesses. She indicates that the tone of those meetings have changed<\/a> since the California assisted-suicide law was enacted.<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as this law was passed \u2013 and you see it everywhere, when these laws are passed \u2013 patients fighting for a longer life end up getting denied treatment, because this will always be the cheapest option.\u201d<\/p>\n Packer attends a support group for terminally ill patients. She said legally sanctioned suicide has changed the tone of the meetings, which used to be \u201cpositive and encouraging.\u201d With patients under new societal pressure to kill themselves, she said meetings \u201cbecame negative, and it started consuming people. And then they said, \u2018You know what? I wish I could just end it.’\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n