Health Care Reform and "End of Life" Counseling

After listening, briefly, to some of the more strident talking heads, I have concluded that they must believe that everyone of my generation is either senile or stupid or cannot read. I fully understand that end-of-life counseling, as provided for in the health care reform bill, is simply a provision that pays doctors to tell us what options we have as we grow older. We have choices, and we definitely need to know what those choices are, think about them clearly, and make our wishes known to our loved ones before those choices are made for us by circumstances.

I have no problem with getting older. I am just as smart, active, and involved as I ever was. Perhaps more so now that I am no longer responsible for children. But I strongly resent the way these opponents of health care reform are distorting facts and scaring people. We need a healthy debate, but we need a debate that deals in facts. Seniors can go to www.whitehouse.gov and find out what this reform is really about. It's about time we considered the reality instead of the fog of fear and distortion that seems to surround this discussion.