Obamacare Regulators Are Getting Ready To Pull the Plug On Grandma

The New York Times, bless its heart, is looking out for Grandma. In a front page lead story on Christmas Day, the Times reported that the Obama administration is planning to enact a new Medicare regulation, effective January 1, 2011, under which the government will pay doctors who advise elder patients annually on options for end-of-life care, which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment. In other words, the Obama administration will ensure that doctors will be incentivized to badger Grandma year after year whether she wants to pull the plug rather than seek treatment if and when she becomes seriously ill.