The Next Big Health Care Myth
Here is a sneak peek at the next big lie the conservative carnival will be pushing this next week. According to an op-ed by Jim Towey in the Wall Street Journal The Department of Veterans Affairs is committed to steering returning disabled veterans into ending their life in order to save the government money. You can be sure that Fox News and all of the right wing radio hosts will be repeating this incendiary “fact” all week long in order to further rile up the troops against health care reform. The problem is it isn’t true. The advanced care planning that is presented to returning veterans is the same that is required by federal law to be used by all health care organizations since 1997. There is nothing in the procedure that “steers” a patient towards one choice or another. The guidelines were even developed under the guidance of the Interfaith Council with every respect for the sanctity and dignity of life.
You can bet that the right wing will spin this into another example of the government’s dangerous interference into your health care. As we see each new lie presented as fact again and again, it should become even clearer that the true strategy is to continually put the Obama administration on the defensive. By forcing Obama and the Democrats to refute ridiculous lie after ridiculous lie they keep the media focused on the insanity instead of what really matters.
