SENATE VOTE LIKELY ON FUNDING MEDICARE DOCTORS TO TALK WITH SENIOR CITIZENS ABOUT REJECTING TREATMENT

"Senator [Jay] Rockefeller [(D-WV)] . . . has had legislation in place to promote advance care planning . . . [;] his staff has said that he plans to, at the 11th hour, to step in and try to use his influence to put it back into the legislation as an amendment."

Myra Christopher, President, Center for
Practical Bioethics, in October 1, 2009 Kansas City Rotary Club speech

During the summer there was considerable criticism of provisions in the House health care restructuring bill that would reimburse Medicare physicians to discuss "advance care planning" with their senior citizen patients, in the express expectation that many would complete advance directives rejecting life-preserving medical treatment and thus save substantial sums of money, as well as other sections promoting such advance directives. In reaction, neither the bill reported in July from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee nor that reported in October from the Senate Finance Committee contained similar provisions.

During the Senate Finance Committee deliberations, however, Senator Rockefeller spoke out strongly for their inclusion, and a speech from a long-time advocate reveals that his strategy is to do so "at the llth hour," presumably meaning toward the end of Senate floor consideration of the merged bill developed for submission to the full Senate by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

Christopher, a friend of Health and Human Services Secretary (and former Kansas Governor) Kathleen Sebelius, heads a major "bioethics" think tank that has long pushed for advance directives. Her talk left no doubt of the economic motive for promoting advance care consultations.

"The reality is that 9% to 11% of the entire health care budget is spent on end of life care – nearly 27 to 30% depending on whose data you want to believe of the Medicare budget is spent on end of life care," she said. "Conservatively, conservatively, $6.1 billion every year of Medicare is wasted on what we refer to as futile care . . . ."