Media Advisory: Disability Groups Respond to Compassion and Choices’ Advocacy for Assisted Suicide Legislation in Connection With Brittany Maynard’s Tragic Illness

7 thoughts on “Media Advisory: Disability Groups Respond to Compassion and Choices’ Advocacy for Assisted Suicide Legislation in Connection With Brittany Maynard’s Tragic Illness”

1. Good to see a united front of the Disability Community in protest of Compassion and Choices well organized and financially supported efforts to push physician assisted suicide laws to our state legislatures. While many of their members believe in the justice of this movement, are they blinded to the consequences to the most vulnerable in our society of state-sanctioned physician assisted suicide?

   Tonight, I watched a wonderful program on our Public Television Station that covered the history of the hard and brave fight of the disability community to get the ADA passed into law. In this program, a participant predicted that the fight will never be over to secure and protect equal rights for all citizens to achieve their God-given potential.

   I believe, of course, that there are dangerous times ahead for the elderly/disabled on Medicare and Medicaid because of changes that have been made in the law that have not been disclosed or explained by The Congress to the people of the United States who pay taxes all of theit working lives to provide the social safety net of social security and Medicare/Medicaid.

   When Medicare/Medicaid started to turn away from fee-for-service in 2006 to the pay- for- performance rational that embraces “managed care” and “managed death” to save money for Medicare/Medicaid and their Big Insurance Partners, were the elderly/disabled on Medicare/Medicaid targeted by these reimbursement protocols to produce savings in end-of-life care to preserve profits for Big Insurance?

   I received my Medicare & You “official U.S. government Medicare handbook” in the mail recently and I am distressed to see that The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are not warning or notifying Medicare/Medicaid patients about the 27 Adverse Hospital events (mistakes and errors) and the pay-for-performance violations, and the exceeding of Diagnosis Related Group Caps that The Congress of the U.S. has deemed do not have to be reimbursed to hospitals under the Part A, Part B, or Part C Advantage coverage of the Medicare contract.

   There is, however, a section of the 2015 official handbook that talks about “What’s Not Covered by Part A and Part B” but nowhere in this official government manual is there any mention of the 27 Adverse Hospital events, the pay-for-performance violations or the exceeding of the DRG Caps that are not reimbursed by Medicare to the hospitals under Part A and Part B and Part C Advantage policies. Why not? I find this troubling.

   My own hard experience with a covert unilateral DNR in my late husband’s hospital chart (unknown by us) and my experiences with my Mom who was on a Medicare Advantage policy makes it impossible for me to understand how this blatant omission of material facts in the official government handbook can be explained and justified.

   Dangerous times ahead!.

   1. Yes, Carol.. Dangerous times ahead.

2. I’m getting a bit dizzy from attempting to log a comment on PBS Newshour on the story. They don’t make it easy for those of us with CFS cognitive glitches. I wanted to point out that the comments under the story about Brittany Maynard are different based on whether or not one is severely disabled. People who are (still) able-bodied have some weird, but it’s not their fault, ideas about disability. Once again, “disabilophobia” at work, helped by the media.
   Note: I have new art about disability and older art about disability on my Flickr public photostream page, which doesn’t fit with the website listing option above:
   http://www.Flickr.com/photos/sanda-aronson-the-artist/

   I am also happy to say, that on a recent Tuesday, “DemocracyNow” had a guest speaking about his end of life book, from a surgeon’s point of view. He was good as far as he went –
   not far enough. l sent an email to the senior producer of the radio (Pacifica’s WBAI)/tv show
   and much to my low tech senior citizen heart, he got the email to Amy Goodman with my question re lack of information and exclusion of attendant care at home, not paid by Medicare and the guest addressed it, but he is, as the comments above indicate, limited by his education or lack thereof about disability. I think the general population does not know about disability and since doctors come from the general population, they are ignorant when they go into medical training and remain so unless they have, as individuals, or the institution,
   contact with people who are severely disabled. People to whom they will listen, not as their patients (subservient in a sense) over whom they have “authority” but as people with experience and knowledge that the medical workers can use and desperately need. Since the media ignores us as well, it’s an uphill battle that NOTDEADYET and “cohorts” have, but hey,
   it’s in our (lives’) interest to make the fight!

3. Diane,
   My comment on same topic of Oct. 17 under blog entry by you of Oct. 9 is still awaiting
   moderation. If possible, just move it here? Sanda

   1. As I wrote in another comment, this delay is my bad. Sorry. -Stephen

4. oops: can you move the top comment from here to newest blog entry; I put comment on wrong site. I’ll refrain from commenting for awhile….

   1. Sanda – sorry. There’s been a lot going on in offline life. I’m trying to catch up with lots of things that have been slipping. That said, I don’t have a way to change the positions of comments.

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