Page 425 just another urban legend
Another trip into the world of urban legend.
The Doc received a Facebook message from a friend asking if e-mails she was receiving about President Obama’s health plan are true.
The e-mails talk (if e-mails can talk) about page 425 of the plan that deals with end of life counseling.
It has prompted a wild flurry of blogging and message board traffic with claims that the government will counsel people with terminal diseases on ways to end their life earlier. It has been dubbed “euthanasia counseling,” by those attempting to make political hay.
Snopes.com, a Web site that deals with urban legends, offers the following example:
“One Page 425 of Obama’s health care bill, the Federal Government will require EVERYONE who is on Social Security to undergo a counseling session every five years with the objective being that they will explain to them just how to end their own life earlier. Yes, they are going to push SUICIDE to cut Medicare spending!!! And no, I am NOT kidding YOU!! Also, planned denial of medical care for seniors.
Those are the writer’s all caps and exclamation points, not the Doc’s.
Here are some examples from Twitter:
quantumphonic: Health Care.• Page 425: Government provides approved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death. From the bill itself! More…
westerdk: page 425 & 426 of the bill; all Medicare recipients required every five years encouraged to learn about ways to shorten their lives.
shergraham49: YOU WILL DIE- page 425 Health care will be denied based on age. 500 Billion will be cut from Seniors http://healthcare.www.fredthompsonshow.com
Hargoosh: THROW THEM ALL OUT!! READ WHAT THEY WANT TO DO TO US! PAGE 425 OF HC BILL http://bit.ly/Ux6aj OUTRAGEOUS! #OBAMAFAIL #HC09 #TCOT
Knightairman: Read page 425 of obamas health care plan. He wants senior citizens to know how to kill themselves to be less of a burden on society.
It’s not just the average Joe or Judy on the street pushing this agenda. Former New York Lt. Governor Betsy McCaughey said on former Sen. and TV District Attorney Fred Thompson’s radio show that “Congress would make it mandatory, absolutely require, that every five years people with Medicare have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life sooner.
McCaughey, a Republican who served under former Gov. George Pataki, works with the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank.
The right has run with her comments and Fox News, surprise, surprise, is feeding it to the masses. Fox News claims it is “hidden” in the bill.
The problem for the right is that it’s simply not true. Not that it will stop Republicans from trying to sell it as the hot, smokin’ gospel. They apparently believe it will scare the elderly and stir up the base. Scaring folks has become the substitute for a lack of message.
Snopes.com says the claim is “… erroneous, a mistaken interpretation of a complicated section of lengthy legislative bill.”
However, Snopes.com will not stop the disillusioned from a feeding frenzy. These days, nothing can.
Don Perryman | Don Perryman | 
July 29, 2009 3:51 pm
2 Comments
Other Links to this Post
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Subscribe
By David Jackson, July 29, 2009 @ 5:00 pm
Mr. Perryman: I listened to the linked video in your above-referenced article and I did not hear them once mention “end of life counseling”. I do not agree with the health care bill because it seems that will lead us into a single payer system and will lead to health care rationing such as is in England and Europe. Before you fault Conservatives for lack of message, please review your own to make sure it is, in fact, saying what you purport. Do you suppose we should accept the health care legislation just like the stimulus package which was voted on and passed without sufficient time to review and was a pork-barrel vote grab by your Democrat friends on Capitol Hill? I believe we have a message, Mr. Perryman, and it is a resounding “NO” to socialized medicine.
By Don Perryman, July 30, 2009 @ 1:24 pm
Mr. Jackson, thanks for taking the time to read the blog and commenting on it. The phrase “end of life counseling” was not used to introduce Ms. McCaughey or the Fox News video. It was used to introduce the remarks I found on Twitter, where the phrase is clearly used. My blog wasn’t intended as an endorsement of the president’s health plan. It’s purpose was to point out an urban legend that is untrue. I don’t know enough about the plan yet to make up my mind.