The VA’s Death Book a Model for Obamacare

The Veterans’ Administration system is a perfect model of what government control of health would look like.  This has been pointed out by me, Mr. Ellis and many other commentators during this current debate over Obamacare.   The VA is fraught with inefficiency, run away costs, denied procedures, long waits, physician and nurse shortages, and, in some case, just poor quality care.

In an article by Carrie Hutchens, we learned that patients are already being referred into hospice programs inappropriately and allowed to die without the care that could have saved their lives.  We learned today that the practice is more pervasive than we thought to include some of our veterans that have given so much already.

Chris Wallace, on Fox News Sunday, did a segment on a program currently in effect in the VA that makes my skin crawl and makes me angry for America’s veterans, of which I am one.  The VA is using a book called “Your Life, Your Choices” that is supposed to help veterans make tough decisions about their medical care in the event of serious illness or injury.  Keep in mind that this is intended not just for the WWII vet that is suffering with dementia related to old age but also for returning Iraq and Afghan vets with serious or disabling war injuries.

In this booklet questions and referrals are included that clearly would lead some readers to consider ending their lives prematurely, by omission of care or commission of euthanasia.  There is little consideration of the possibility that some such patients might still be living rewarding and purposeful lives in spite of their handicaps.  It arbitrarily puts a value on life (or lack of) from the point of view of an “ethicist” who has been active in the right-to-die and euthanasia movements, including “Compassion and Choices,” formerly the Hemlock Society.

When Sarah Palin commented on what she called “death panels” included in the House health care bill she was belittled and ridiculed throughout the MSM, not to mention the White House.  But, we see that the thought is indeed on the minds of government experts, many of whom have been advisors to the Obama administration. The notion doesn’t seem quite so far-fetched when we hear that the VA literally encourages vets to consider “end of life” options that can only be called coercive.

Make no mistake, government controlled health care will seek to control costs by making efforts to eliminate the elderly and disabled before their time either by denying care outright or by coercing those patients into thinking they have not just a “right to die” but a “responsibility to die.”

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