Controversial health-care commentator returns to fray
One of the skeletons in the closet of the New Republic, Betsy McCaughey, whose misleading writings on the Clinton health plan in the 1990s are often cited as one of the causes of its demise, has returned to try to scupper President Obama's health-care agenda. To be sure, she's not making her claims in that magazine, where she is persona non grata. Her piece, published during Andrew Sullivan's editorial reign, is widely viewed (at least by the center-left) as one of the publication's worst missteps, and the present editor, Franklin Foer, has explicitly disowned it.
"The law will prevent you from going outside the system to buy basic health coverage you think is better," McCaughey opined back in 1994. "The doctor can be paid only by the plan, not by you."
McCaughey's piece became a rallying point for those who wanted to kill the plan, but her claims "were simply false," as James Fallows later wrote. They were flatly contradicted by the text of the bill.
And now she's popped up again, notes blogger Greg Sargent. Her argument this time? The Obama health-reform plan will lead to "government-encouraged euthanasia." Already the talking point has been picked up by House Minority Leader John Boehner, Sean Hannity, and Fred Thompson.
Here's the grain of truth behind the over-the-top assertion. Under one proposal, Medicare for the first time would cover "advanced care" consultations with one's doctor, which might include discussions of how the patient wants to handle so-called end-stage care. An executive vice president for AARP (a group you'd expect to have some reservations about knocking off old people) explained to Politico what the point of the provision was, in AARP's eyes: "This measure would not only help people make the best decisions for themselves but also better ensure that their wishes are followed. To suggest otherwise is a gross, and even cruel, distortion -- especially for any family that has been forced to make the difficult decisions on care for loved ones approaching the end of their lives." What's more, the provision is entirely optional.
For its part, Politico put a world-class "objective" headline on the piece: "Will proposal promote euthanasia?"
(Via McCaughey's chief enabler)
