How come I haven’t heard a single one of you get up on your feet and say that all those right-wing pundits suggesting that healthcare reform will lead to old people being put out on ice floes or encouraged to commit suicide are outright liars. They know that’s not in the provisions, but say it to scare people who are ill-informed, whose faculties might be affected by age or medication, or who just believe everything they hear. That makes them liars.

The provisions in the bill only encourage doctors to talk to their Medicare patients every five years — if the patient wants, and frankly it should be all patients — about their end of life preferences, advance directives and living wills. Doctors should do this anyway, but they don’t get paid for it, so often they don’t. This just gives them a few bucks for doing so.

How many of you have living wills? How many of you have talked to your parents about whether they want extreme measures taken when they are at the end of their lives? Those of you who have, congratulations. You’ve done the right thing. Now stand up on your feet and tell Fox and Friends and Rush Limbaugh to shut their traps and stop their malicious lying. And if you haven’t had that conversation or done that for yourself, do it. Then get on your feet and assure every one of your constituents that we aren’t going to kill them when they get too expensive.

If we really wanted to do that, there are some members of Congress that should probably be first in line.

Lisa