I’m used to feeling shock and awe when I open my medical bills, but now it occurs every time I turn on the news or read a newspaper and hear the misinformation about healthcare reform.

Let’s spend a minute talking about facts, and not made up truths to sway Americans away from reforming a system that most of us feels is out of control.  First of all, Medicare is a government program – always has been and looks like always will be.  If you need a label and want to call it socialized medicine.  So be it. But remember, the program works.  Are there changes that should be made to it?  Yes.  For instance, raise physician fee schedules so they’ll take more Medicare patients.  I had to call 11 doctors before I could find one that would take my mother as a new patient.  Lower hospital bills to bring cost containment to senior healthcare.  And fix the donut hole in the pharmacy benefits program, which will reduce out-of-pocket prescription costs for Americans 65 years and older. The pharmaceutical industry has pledged 80 million in cuts over several years. This should have been done when we introduced a pharmacy benefits program in the first place.

Now let’s look at one of the most damaging lies that is generating fear and even violence.  If you read the House’s healthcare reform bill — H.R. 3200 America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 — it does not promote euthanasia.  What Section 1233 of the healthcare reform bill does do is ask seniors to plan their end of life care, which is just plain common sense.  I heard a story this weekend about a 90-year-old who underwent a triple heart bypass and, not surprising, didn’t make it out of recovery.  Was that a good choice for anyone? Was it worth the $23k hospital tab for just the procedure? The bill advocates physicians taking a role in counseling patients about end of life choices.  It’s shameful that there are politically motivated groups trying to scare seniors away from supporting healthcare reform.

My mother-in-law was an Alzheimer’s patient for the past 4 years.  I am grateful that she had long-term health insurance so we could make her as comfortable and secure as possible.  When she thought something was going wrong (she never voiced this to us, however, nor was she diagnosed at the time) she took the proactive step to ensure that we were not put at risk financially, and that she would get the care she needed.  In addition, she filled out a Living Will and put her wishes on paper about end of life treatment.  There was no guesswork, guilt or shame when we chose hospice over hospitalization.  She showed true love to us by examining her wishes and options before she could no longer make the decisions for herself.  I will be eternally grateful.

When you want to make a point, I guess facts do get in the way.  But the level of misinformation parading as genuine concern for the American public is infuriating at best. Producing fear, violence, shock and awe around change is so incredibly unproductive, especially when most Americans believe we need change.  Isn’t that why Barack Obama was voted into office?

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