Tag: medicare

Proposed changes to Medicare Part D can limit access to life-saving drugs, NRLC warns

By Dave Andrusko Almost single-handedly, over decades, NRLC has opposed “cost-cutting” measures that would likely have the effect of rationing care in general and/or limiting access to life-saving medication, in particular. Nowhere is that pressure to reduce costs today more intense than lowering the cost of prescription drugs. This is why NRLC has closely examined …

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NRLC tells House about concern with H.R. 1384 and similar “Medicare for All” proposals

Editor’s note. This letter was sent to Members of the House on April 29. Dear Representative: At some point during the current Congress, the House of Representatives may vote on one or more so-called “Medicare for All” proposals. The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of state right-to-life organizations, strongly opposes one such …

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NRLC warns that proposed changes to Medicare Part D can limit access to life-saving drugs

By Jennifer Popik, JD, Federal Legislative Director Since its inception, the National Right to Life Committee has been equally concerned with protecting older people and people with disabilities from euthanasia as with protecting the unborn from abortion. We have recognized that involuntary denial of lifesaving medical treatment is a form of involuntary euthanasia, and therefore …

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National Right to Life Hails Bill Providing Equal Treatment for Pro-Life Advance Directives

WASHINGTON – The National Right to Life Committee applauded the introduction today, in both the Senate and House, of the “Medicare Choices Empowerment and Protection Act.” The companion bills would give Medicare beneficiaries and others online access to model advance directives that choose life-saving treatment, food and fluids equally with those that reject them. The …

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Medicare to Pay for End-of-Life Planning

By Wesley J. Smith I have no objections to paying doctors to help people plan the kind treatment they would want if incapacitated. And now, Medicare is paying for it. From the New York Times story: Under the rule, officials said, Medicare would pay $86 for the first 30 minutes of “advance care planning” in …

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Major Medicare penalty set to hit 2,600 U.S. hospitals – will disproportionately affect sickest patients

By Jennifer Popik, J.D., Powell Center for Medical Ethics When the Obama Health Care Plan became law in 2010, one of the first provisions that went into effect authorized the federal Department of Health and Human Services to impose so-called “quality measures” on health care providers. One of these targeted were hospital “readmissions” – instances …

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National Right to Life Urges Congress to Block Obama Administration Proposal Whose Effect Would “Nudge” Senior Citizens to Agree to Premature Death

WASHINGTON – The National Right to Life Committee is urging Congressional action to keep an Obama Administration proposal to pay doctors for “advance care planning” in Medicare from taking effect, and instead to provide for balanced, neutral materials to assist patients in implementing their own values 1 (“Advance care planning” refers to counseling potential patients …

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Efforts to suppress spending on life-saving drugs are working—while development of new drugs is stagnating

  New analysis details a disappointing explanation for recent decreases in Medicare spending growth – a paucity of new life-saving and health-preserving drugs By Jennifer Popik, JD, Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics The title of an October 23, 2014, Washington Post article seemingly would have us rejoicing: “You may want to thank George W. …

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Cuts hit cancer patients—foreshadowing broader limits under federal health care law

By Jennifer Popik, JD Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics Starting this month, cancer clinics across the country have begun turning away thousands of Medicare patients, citing the Federal sequester budget cuts. Oncologists took a 2% funding cut, and they say that it makes it impossible to administer expensive chemotherapy drugs if they are to …

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Donald Berwick Gets His Dream Job at NHS

By Wesley J. Smith The NHS [British National Health Service] is a disaster, squared–caused by socialized systems, rationing, and centralized control.  Over the years, I have reported here on women giving birth in hospital hallways, people being kept waiting in ambulances before entering ERs in order to permit hospitals to comply with waiting time directives …

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Indiana Not Budging, Despite Threats from Obama Administration

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By Dave Andrusko By Monday afternoon, when next we discuss the Obama administration’s heavy-handed attempt to coerce the state of Indiana, a federal judge will have heard Planned Parenthood of Indiana’s suit challenging a new law that denies state-directed funding for businesses and organizations performing abortions, except for hospitals or ambulatory surgical centers. The hearing, …

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NRLC President Carol Tobias on Medicare & Rationing

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By Dave Andrusko National Right to Life has been and remains the leader in exposing the anti-life provisions of ObamaCare. I would very much encourage you to check out a new video in which NRLC President Carol Tobias discusses the rationing provisions affecting Medicare under the Obama Health Care Law. Once you’ve had a chance …

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