Finance Committee to drop end-of-life provision

The Senate Finance Committee will drop a controversial provision on consultations for end-of-life care from its proposed healthcare bill, its top Republican member said Thursday.

The committee, which has worked on putting together a bipartisan healthcare reform bill, will drop the controversial provision after it was derided by conservatives as "death panels" to encourage euthanasia.

"On the Finance Committee, we are working very hard to avoid unintended consequences by methodically working through the complexities of all of these issues and policy options," Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement. "We dropped end-of-life provisions from consideration entirely because of the way they could be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly."

Finance Committee to Drop End of Life Provision

The article goes on to quote Grassley as saying that "The bill passed by the House committees is so poorly cobbled together that it will have all kinds of unintended consequences, including making taxpayers fund healthcare subsidies for illegal immigrants".

This isn't about H.R. 3200, this is a bill that the Finance Committee is expected to unveil after the August recess is over and Congress is back in session. I just want that to be clear to everyone. Grassley is touting this particular bill as being much better than the one currently being focused on, so I'll be interested in reading it and comparing the two once it's released. Removing that portion of any of the bills would likely decrease the opposition to them I would think. Not completely but it would be a start.

Edit: Fixed url

[edit on 13-8-2009 by Jenna]

Does this mean Palin was right about death panels?

Seems Washington is trying to appease the senior citizens.

I think it's more of a concession that it could be implemented in such a way that it became a death panel than them saying that Palin is correct. That's the way I took it anyway. If there's even a chance that it could be implemented that way then it's a big red flag complete with a flashing neon sign that says "Change This".

reply to post by Jenna


At this rate the dems are right, the bill will pass... and it will do absolutely nothing and make political suicide for Obama.


I really am sad. The man is so smart. Surely he can create a non bureaucratic single payer system? But no. Instead he does what his chain holders tell him to do.

I really do hate having the presidency captured by thugs and corrupt idiots.

I don't even blame Obama. It seems unreasonable that such a wise intelligent man could fall for it. There's got to be a long money trail somewhere for sure.

Originally posted by jam

Seems Washington is trying to appease the senior citizens.

They would be wise to appease them. It's been shown time in and time out that a higher percentage of senior citizens vote than all voters. Here's some statistics, albeit 5 years old (but still represents the trend) to back it up:

Senior Journal

Unless, of course, the "Death Panel" rumors are true. Then, quite frankly, they wouldn't be around to vote at all...

[edit on 14-8-2009 by LetTheTruthBeTold]