Who the hell is Betsey McCaughey?

First off read this quote:
The health care reform bill "would make it mandatory — absolutely require — that every five years people in Medicare have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life sooner."

-Betsy McCaughey on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 in on the Fred Thompson radio show

As far as I can tell that comment is the genesis of the “end of life” debate. From this comment the following statements have been inferred:

This bill "may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia," House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said July 23.

"Some people are saying, well, this is a health care reform, other people say -- maybe me -- that this is a subtle form of euthanasia. And when you start looking at the proposals, you say, God, what's happening? One of the proposals, Section 1233, talks about advanced care planning consultations. And that's a fancy term where a doctor goes to you every five years once you're 65, or more if you're chronically ill, and explains to you the benefits of so-called palliative care, of not giving active treatment." Co-host Brian Kilmeade subsequently claimed, "Wow. Somebody you don't even know will decide if you're going to live." [Fox & Friends, 7/27/09]

"They're going to counsel you on preparing you to die," Rush Limbaugh pronounced a few weeks ago (Sorry, couldn’t find the exact date).

"I'll bet he doesn't know that there is end-of-life counseling for senior citizens on page 425 to 430. What is this counseling going to be? Why would you need mandatory counseling for all seniors, and who's going to pay for this? Mandatory counseling for all seniors at a minimum of every five years, more often if the seasoned citizen is sick or in a nursing home. And as Don Parker writes here at the American Thinker, "Don't even think that anyone should receive mandatory counseling regarding the end-of-life issues surrounding abortion." That's an invasion of the right to privacy. We can't have counseling for mothers who are thinking of terminating their pregnancy, but we can go in there and counsel people about to die. I'm sure you could get some counselors from the Hemlock Society to go in and do this. Kevorkian might want to come back to life and handle this. End-of-life counselors, end-of-life treatment for senior citizens, mandatory." Rush Limbaugh July 21, 2009 to a caller.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) stated on the floor of the House that the Republicans' health care reform legislation, unlike that of the Democrats, would not put seniors "to death." July 28, 2009

The Heritage Foundation's Thomas Sowell wrote a column, "Utopia Versus Freedom," in which he warned readers to "not be surprised when life-and-death decisions about you or your family are taken out of your hands — and out of the hands of your doctor — and transferred to bureaucrats in Washington."

Let me say this right off the bat: planning for end of life care is not an effort by the Obama administration to “kill old people”.

THE FACTS: The bill would require Medicare to pay for advance directive consultations with health care professionals. But it would not require anyone to use the benefit.

Advance directives lay out a patient's wishes for life-extending measures under various scenarios involving terminal illness, severe brain damage and situations. Patients and their families would consult with health professionals, not government agents, if they used the proposed benefit.

Now who is Betsey McCaughey?

She is currently an Adjunct Fellow at the Hudson Institute. Before that she was the Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York from 1995 to 1998, during the first term of Republican Governor George Pataki. The Hudson Institute is an American, conservative, non-profit think tank founded in 1961, in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation. The Institute promotes public policy change in accordance with its stated values of a "commitment to free markets and individual responsibility, confidence in the power of technology to assist progress, respect for the importance of culture and religion in human affairs, and determination to preserve America's national security."

McCaughey shot to fame during the first healthcare debate. In 1994, she wrote a scathing review of the Clinton administration's health care plan in the New Republic, arguing that the proposal would lead to rationing of treatment and would prevent patients from choosing health insurance. Republicans seized on the key points of "No Exit," forcing the Clintons to issue a response to the article. Politicos should be sending me emails stating that the New Republic (TNR) is a left leaning journal. True but during this period TNR was edited by Andrew Sullivan. During his tenure as editor (1991 to 1996), TNR had a somewhat more conservative bent.

Again, healthcare reform is in her sights!

In her chat with Thompson, McCaughey said the language can be found on page 425 of the health care bill, so we started there. Indeed, Sec. 1233 of the bill, labeled "Advance Care Planning Consultation" details how the bill would, for the first time, require Medicare to cover the cost of end-of-life counseling sessions.

According to the bill, "such consultation shall include the following: An explanation by the practitioner of advance care planning, including key questions and considerations, important steps, and suggested people to talk to; an explanation by the practitioner of advance directives, including living wills and durable powers of attorney, and their uses; an explanation by the practitioner of the role and responsibilities of a health care proxy."

So what are people that work in the field saying about this provision:
Jon Keyserling, general counsel and vice president of public policy for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, which supports the provision, said the bill doesn't encourage seniors to end their lives, it just allows some important counseling for decisions that take time and consideration.

"These are very serious conversations," he said. "It needs to be an informative conversation from the medical side and it needs to be thought about carefully by the patient and their families."

In no way would these sessions be designed to encourage patients to end their lives, said Jim Dau, national spokeman for AARP, a group that represents people over 50 that has lobbied in support of the advanced planning provision.

McCaughey's comments are "not just wrong, they are cruel," said Dau. "We want to make sure people are making the right decision. If someone wants to take every life-saving measure, that's their call. Others will decide it's not worth going through this trauma just for themselves and their families, and that's their decision, too."

This is the tactic that erodes trust in a democratic system. I have been thinking a lot about the reform debate and it worries me. People are taking McCaughey’s false assertions and running with them to Town Hall meetings with their Representatives. People are yelling, screaming, and crying. People are scared the government will kill their grandparents and parents. It is truly unfortunate the basis of all this raw emotion is a lie. Rightwing ideologues are playing on memories of relatives that have passed away and drudging up those gut wrenching feelings, forcing people into an emotional state. How dare they kill my mother? Then people run out to these Town Hall Meeting, and with the camera’s rolling, cry and yell at someone that really is not the enemy. The enemy in this case is the person that started it all, Betsey McCaughey.