Topic: CNSNews.com
CNS is auditioning another scary, nit-picking story about health care reform. A Nov. 10 article by Karen Schuberg tries to peddle the idea that the health care reform bill "does not prohibit the use of federal funds to pay health care providers who provide 'end-of-life care' that involves denying food and water to a patient."
After quoting spokespeople for two Republican congressmen parroting the supposed alarm about this lack of mention, it's not until the 11th paragraph that Schuberg gets around to telling her readers that there is no story here:
Aaron Albright, press secretary for the majority Democratic members of the House Education and Labor Committee, told CNSNews.com the bill does not address the question of payment for end-of-life care. “We leave the current system intact,” Albright said.
When asked if the health-reform bill would rule out the use of federal funds to reimburse health-care providers who withdraw or withhold nutrition or hydration, Albright said it was a “false question.”
“We do not change any practice, or any law, or anything like that,” Albright said. “(End of life decisions) will be left up to the patient and their doctor and their family.”
Schuberg does her best to ignore this, insisting that "a source close to Republican members of the committee" claims that "it would be up to the government--Medicare and the Department of Health and Human Services--to develop guidelines to specifically prevent government-funding going toward withdrawal of feeding tubes and water." Why was this person given anonymity? Schuberg doesn't say.
CNS likes to audition dubious stories in the hopes of providing more anti-Obama for the right-wing base, even after their dubiousness has been exposed -- often by CNS itself.
