President Obama's drive to remake the entire American health care system—dubbed "Obamacare" by friends and critics alike—has been seriously hobbled by fears of "death panels" and worries Grandma will be denied life-saving care by rationing boards or pushed by end-of-life counselors into "taking the pain pill" (to quote the president) rather than accepting life-extending treatment. 

With the Administration struggling to assure millions of worried Americans that Obamacare will not unleash such a culture of death, it seems exceedingly odd that at a recent town meeting in Grand Junction, Colorado, the president would tout the Netherlands' health care system as a "good example" for America to emulate.

The president mentioned Dutch health care while defending his "public option," claiming that its "government is involved [in health care] but you still have a thriving private insurance market." Talk about an understatement: The Dutch have what is known as a two-tiered system of financing care. Everyone must purchase insurance from heavy regulated private insurance companies that offer plans with benefits set by the government. While the plans compete with each other on price, each company's plans must be sold at the same price to everyone regardless of their age and state of health. It is illegal to refuse to sell anyone insurance, to create deductibles, or to refuse to fund treatments that a doctor has determined to be medically necessary. Employers pay 50% of the premiums and citizens 45%, and the government subsidizes people who can't afford premiums.  Long term care is paid by the government, as is chronic mental health treatment and end of life care, services that are financed through taxation. Insurance companies that have heavy payouts are compensated by the government and a competition regulator ensures that the companies don't act against the consumer's interests.

That's a lot more than just being "involved." In a country the size of the USA, instituting such a heavily regulated, universally mandated two-tiered system would, to say the least, be an administrative challenge. 

That matter aside, given the widespread public fear that Obamacare will destroy Hippocratic medical values, it is very odd that the president would pick that particular country as a template for emulation. You see, Dutch doctors are not just healers; many are also active killers. Since 1973 when a Dutch trial judge effectively decriminalized active euthanasia under supposedly "strict" guidelines (later legalized by the Parliament), doctors there have lethally injected or assisted the suicides of tens of thousands of their sick, disabled, elderly, and even physically fit but depressed patients.

Usually, euthanasia is voluntary. But according to several Dutch studies, physicians also engage in non voluntarily euthanasia, illegally lethally injecting hundreds of patients each year who never asked to die—a practice known as "termination without request or consent."  Even though such killings are technically murder under Dutch law, doctors who euthanize people who never asked to be killed are almost never prosecuted, and the few that are rarely receive any meaningful punishment.

Mercy killing has even entered Dutch pediatric wards, with doctors euthanizing scores of seriously disabled or terminally ill babies each year. Indeed, according to two studies published in the Lancet, Dutch doctors lethally inject about eight percent of all babies who die in the Netherlands annually, about 80 children.  Chillingly, the journal reported that 45% of Dutch neonatologists and 31% of pediatricians responding to the Lancet study questionnaires admitted committing infanticide. Not only are these crimes—also technically murder—only rarely punished, but infant-killing doctors from the Groningen University Medical Center boldly published the "Groningen Protocol" describing the guidelines they use in determining which babies to euthanize. And even though they admitted to killing about fifteen babies under the protocol, they were never prosecuted.

Of course, none of this means that if Obamacare passes, we too will fall off Euthanasia Cliff.  But it is worth noting that in Oregon—where assisted suicide is legal and Medicaid (the government funded insurance fund for the poor) is rationed— two terminally ill cancer patients were denied life-extending chemotherapy by bean-counting bureaucrats and then offered assisted suicide instead.

Moreover, given that the system's overhaul has been primarily sold to the public as a way of cutting costs, and given that the drugs to end life cost under $100, it is worth noting that Derek Humphry, founder of the Hemlock Society, called cost savings the "unspoken argument" in favor of legalization. In his book Freedom to Die, Humphry wrote:

There will likely come a time when PAS [physician-assisted suicide] becomes a commonplace occurrence for individuals who want to die and feel it is the right thing to do by their loved ones.  There is no contradicting the fact that since the largest medical expenses are incurred in the final days and weeks of life, the hastened demise of people with only a short time left would free resources for others.  Hundreds of billions of dollars could benefit those patients who not only can be cured but who want to live.

Click to watch the exchange between Zach Lane & President Obama:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW8Ko9EsMdU

Bishop Harry Jackson surprised MSNBC Host Ed Schultz with a reasoned retort to Schultz's insulting critique of religious leaders who question Obama's approach to healthcare reform

Watch the video:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/32364560#32409460

Representatives from both the right and the left react to yesterday's blogradio conference, 40 minutes for Health Reform, with President Obama

David Brody, CBN White House correspondent remarked, "Overall, the conference call felt very much like an infomercial. With testimonies about poor health care situations to upcoming faith health care events, you got the sense that this felt a little more like a PR call rather than a substantive discussion of health care. I guess I should have expected that. This call was a rallying cry from the progressive religious left and the White House to essentially go out there and set the record straight. We'll see where it all leads.The White House is smart to reach out to the faith community. Spreading the health care word in the pews could make a difference for this President. Of course in conservative Churches the word is spreading too. It's the race to control the narrative."

http://blogs.cbn.com/thebrodyfile/archive/2009/08/19/president-on-faith-call-some-people-are-bearing-false-witness.aspx
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Catholic News Agency reports that Obama calls on religious progressives to 'knock on doors' for health care reform. "Addressing a coalition of religious progressives this afternoon in a teleconference call, President Barack Obama denied that his health care plan will include abortion and asked members of different religious denominations to 'knock on doors, talk to neighbors, spread the facts and speak the truth,' about his health care reform.

The conference held at 5 p.m. Eastern time, was sponsored by “40 Days for Health Reform,” a group of some 30 left-leaning religious organizations including the Catholic Social Justice Lobby ("Network”), Catholics United Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and the George Soros-funded Faith in Public Life.

The Sisters of Mercy of the Americas were listed as sponsors of the '40 Minutes for Health Reform' audio webcast.

Florida Pastor John Hunter introduced the '40 Minutes' with a passionate call to 'take action to make health care reform happen,' claiming that 'this is not about ideology or partisan politics; this is about people’s lives.'"

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=16891

Canadian Leaders Confess Their Health-Care System Is Sick

"The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says this country's health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it.

Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care and she adds that physicians from across the country - who will gather in Saskatoon on Sunday for their annual meeting - recognize that changes must be made.

'We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize,' Doing said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

'We know that there must be change,' she said. 'We're all running flat out, we're all just trying to stay ahead of the immediate day-to-day demands.'"

The Canadian Press

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jbjzPEY0Y3bvRD335rGu_Z3KXoQw

Now they want to euthanize the children

"In the Netherlands, 31 percent of pediatricians have killed infants. A fifth of these killings were done without the consent of parents.”

“In 30 years Holland has moved from assisted suicide to euthanasia, from euthanasia of people who are terminally ill to euthanasia of those who are chronically ill, from euthanasia for physical illness to euthanasia for mental illness, from euthanasia for mental illness to euthanasia for psychological distress or mental suffering, and from voluntary euthanasia to involuntary euthanasia or as the Dutch prefer to call it ‘termination of the patient without explicit request’.
It is now considered a form of discrimination against the chronically ill to deny them assisted death because they will be forced to suffer longer than those who are terminally ill and it is considered bias to force endurance of psychological pain when it is not associated with physical illness. The next step, non-voluntary euthanasia, is then
justified by appealing to our social duty to care for patients who are not competent to choose for themselves.”

Wesley Smith

http://current.com/items/90446796_euthanasia-as-a-solution-for-health-care-rationing.htm

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