Biggert remark not just inflammatory

"Requires end-of-life counseling for seniors that might encourage them to give up when facing a serious illness."

This is how U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert describes a provision in one current version of the reform plan that allows a primary care physician to be paid for such a counseling session if the patient and physician decide to do one. Right now, we hope it happens - the patient should have some say in how they will be treated when they are dying. When in the process of dying, patients often cannot answer such questions as how much pain medication to use, to use a respirator or not, to resuscitate or not.

The only way to have their wishes respected is to have that conversation beforehand with the primary care physician. Right now, the primary care physician eats the costs of that consultation - it is not a "covered procedure."

This bill would make it reimbursable, just like a blood test that you and your doctor decide that you need. Characterizing that reform in the words that Biggert used is not just "a little inflammatory" as Judy characterized it, it is an outright lie. It's time we stop mincing words about the lies that are being spread to thwart health care reform.

Meanwhile, the "reforms" that she advocates do nothing to lower costs, they just further increase the profits of the health care and health insurance companies without improving care or increasing coverage or lowering costs for people. If health care costs continue growing as they have for the past decade or more, they will take our economy down. If we don't get wiser about how we spend our health care dollars, our life expectancy will continue to deteriorate with respect to the rest of the developed world and our infant mortality will continue to grow.

Jackie Behring

Naperville