Zombie Death Panels

The big news going around this weekend is the story in the NYTimes about the return of the death panels that Congress had removed from Obamacare before passing it in December last year.

Ed Morrissey has the best quote on the subject. First he notes there’s nothing wrong with preplanning what you want at the end of your life. After all, we ARE all going to die.

There is, however, something at least vaguely disturbing about a government incentivizing doctors to do so as part of an expansive regulatory program that has, as one of its primary goals, cost reduction.

In the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) this morning we see evidence of how this administration has resurrected the dead part of Obamacare. Spread lies.

The White House on Sunday said the new Medicare directive, reported Sunday by the New York Times, doesn’t constitute a resurrection of the original health-care-bill language. It said the George W. Bush administration had already put in place guidelines allowing for Medicare to pay for end-of-life consultations.

A Medicare revamp in 2003 created a “welcome to Medicare” visit for seniors newly entering the program to get a checkup. Another law passed in 2008 and signed by Mr. Bush specifies that the welcome visit can include a discussion of “end-of-life planning.”

The health-care overhaul in 2010 turned the welcome visit into an annual “wellness visit,” saying seniors could get covered for a checkup every year. The new directive makes clear that the annual wellness visit can include the same end-of-life planning already permitted in the welcome visit.

Here is the Politico version.

but
George W. Bush vetoed that law passed in 2008.

So let’s see…….Obamacare dead parts are all going to come back via some regulatory process and its going to pass the smell test by saying …..”Bush did it”.

How did Obama go from “blaming” Bush for all his troubles to giving Bush “credit” for his (Obama’s) decisions?