AARP’s November/December issue carries a full page “Q&A” (Question and Answer) feature titled: Dear Jennie: A message to you from the AARP President.” It is worthwhile to examine how Jennie Chin Hansen, AARP’s Board President deals with this important issue.

Q. Can you assure me that health care reform will not allow government to “pull the plug” on serious ill patients?”

A. Yes, I can. “The simple truth is that every health care reform plan Congress is debating – and any plan AARP will support – ensures that you and your doctor are the only ones who make end-of-life-decisions.

Overlooking the obvious pun of “Yes, I can,” the answer is either an outright lie or a gross distortion of reality.

First, this article was published before Nancy Pelosi released her 1990 page re-write of the Obamacare draft plan which has not been reconciled into its final form and is said to be awaiting further democrat amendments. So there is no way that Hansen can provide such assurances to AARP members because there is no way she can know what will be in the final bill.

Second, much of the actual power to make rules and regulations is conferred on the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the health czars and the heads of yet-unformed boards, commissions and panels. There is no way that Hansen can know what the rulings from the Secretary or these unformed entities might be.

Third, evidence exists that hospitals, both government and private, are actually formulating plans to remove the sickest patients from their respirators in the face of a national flu outbreak or other such “national emergency.”  I strongly suggest that you read my blog entries on the subject and decide for yourself.

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Fourth, the natural law of supply and demand can not be repealed by government fiat. That is, we are asking the system to treat millions of new patients without a corresponding increase in doctors, nurses, facilities, diagnostic equipment and other medical devices. When the system becomes overburdened, it stands to reason that some people will be denied medical care (and might die), some people will experience delayed medical care (and might die) and some people will just give up and go home (where they might die).

Hansen goes on to demonize those who question the ability of government to create and manage a massive healthcare system when they have proven problems with Social Security, Medicare and the delivery of healthcare to our returning troops.

“Unfortunately, some special interest groups are using myths and other scare tactics to block health care reform. The most disgraceful of these fables is that the government will some how acquire the power to set up “death panels that could order seriously ill patients to be euthanized. In fact, this goes well beyond myth: it’s an outright lie.”

This is misleading at best. That there is no such things as “death panels” is true. Even government officials are not so stupid as to use this incendiary label. They would be called “triage committees” or “selection boards” or some innocuous sounding name. But, in essence, they would have the right to choose who lives or dies. How do you think scarce human organs such as kidneys are allocated among the much longer list of waiting recipients? Where some people live or die based on their ability to pay, social standing, support group, etc. Do you think that the Florida Department of Health is acting without federal guidelines and input when it is drawing up plans to deny care to some populations during a declared emergency?

““The goal, the plan says, is to focus care on patients whose lives could be saved and who would be most likely to improve. While it says those decisions are not to be made based on patients' perceived social worth or role, the plan calls for different rules for some populations.” <Source>

President Obama has already declared our healthcare system to be in a state of crisis, so it does not take a major leap to see “emergency” measures implemented to control costs and reduce systemic shortages of critical facilities, personnel, equipment and supplies.

Hansen goes on to say …

“Other outrageous myths being spread by those who want to obstruct health care reform: that reform would ration your care, hurt Medicare, or result in a government takeover. Every one of these statements is false.”

Why is AARP and Hansen lying, or at the very least, being disingenuous? 

We can clearly anticipate an overburdened, overworked system will mandate some form of health care rationing. The government has announced that it plans to pay for part of the healthcare reform by eliminating the Medicare Advantage program which serves approximately 30% of senior citizens. And what would you call legislation which mandates the control of almost every facet of healthcare given to every legal and illegal citizen in the United States? I would call it a “takeover.”

But to answer the question of why AARP would be willing to sell out its membership to the Obama Administration, one needs only to consider the following two facts”

One, AARP’s senior leadership supports President Obama and the Obama Administration.

Two, AARP is one of those “special interests” that have a vested interest in Obamacare. By eliminating Medicare’s Advantage program, which is not offered by AARP to its members, in favor of Medi-Gap style insurance, which is offered by AARP to its members, AARP appears to be positioned for a windfall of new business. Truth-be-told, AARP is a two-component organization. One, a non-profit that purports to support the interests of senior citizens; and two, a “for profit” billion dollar organization which promotes healthcare, travel and other services to its membership in return for healthy referral fees and other income. Do you honestly believe that “for profit” considerations does not drive the entire organization’s goals and initiatives?

AARP’s built-in conflict of interest and apparent willingness to promote Obama and Obama care insures that they cannot act as a credible “honest broker” when it comes to healthcare reform.

The truth …

Everyone believes that the current healthcare system is in trouble and that insurance companies act in their own best interests while treating everybody, senior citizens included, shabbily.

But the question remains: is the democrat-led Congress and the Obama Administration the right “honest broker” to bring about transformative change. Can you trust a government run by politicians who have a history of corruption, malfeasance and troubling associations with special interest groups to run a health care system which represents one-sixth of our economy in an honest and ethical manner? One need only look to these corrupt politicians who claim there will be no pork in a funding bill to find thousands of earmarks already written in. One need look no farther than the corrupt practice of tucking an unpopular bill which has little or no chance of being passed into a “must pass” piece of legislation as an amendment. One need only to consider that this healthcare bill was crafted in secret, in a back room, without the input of the opposition which represents 46% of our population.

But the most disturbing of all … is that the democrats in Congress have apparently cut back-room deals with the pharmaceutical lobby, the durable medical equipment lobby, the unions, certain state representatives needed for their votes – and, apparently, large special interest groups such as AARP. Whether or not this was done with a “wink-and-a-nod” or through some formal, as yet to be published, memorandum of understanding,  we can see the genesis of a corrupt system taking place.

What is actually hidden in those 1990 pages? What special deals? What unintended consequences? And more telling, can any legislator actually read this bill – and understand it (especially with arcane references to other legislative initiatives) before voting away the rights of American citizens to honest, ethical, fairly-priced healthcare and healthcare insurance?

Already the Congress is displaying their dishonesty. By removing approximately 220 BILLION dollars from the current legislation and simply placing it in another bill – all so they can claim that the bill does not cost over $1 TRILLION dollars. Which, in and of itself, is an outright lie! The costs are in excess of a trillion dollars, perhaps as much as three trillion dollars. The phony accounting, based on ten years of revenue collection and five years of actually providing services, should outrage American citizens – and especially senior American citizens.

If Congress were acting on behalf of the American citizens, and not the special interests providing campaign funds, voter support and jobs for their relatives and favored friends, we would see a better program. One that featured tort reform and reduced malpractice insurance premiums (opposed by the insurance industry), increased competition across state lines so as to make healthcare portable and cheaper (opposed by the insurance industry), and the expansion of risk pools to allow anyone to purchase insurance without regard to their current employment status (again, opposed by the insurance industry).

Bottom line …

We need the urgent reform of the healthcare and healthcare insurance system. But we cannot rely on the dishonest and unethical democrats to provide such a program. Or trust the word of any special interest group which purports to serve its membership while selling them out for their own gain. We need to reform government before we reform healthcare. Our lives and the lives of our families depend on it.

-- steve