By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA
The "Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act," formerly S. 693 and H.R. 1676, has been reintroduced in the 116th Congress as H.R. 647. I did not see a Senate version. The full text is not yet available.
The prior Act, if passed into law, would have undermined the Office of the Inspector General's (OIG's) mission to combat Medicare and Medicaid fraud concerning the federal hospice benefit. See https://www.choiceillusion.org/2018/10/memo-to-us-senate-committee-on-health.html The Act was also a "springing" or closet euthanasia bill:
US euthanasia advocates promote "medical aid in dying" (euthanasia) as "palliative care." There is a similar situation in Canada, where "lobbies are trying to influence the government to include so-called Medical Aid in Dying ... in palliative care."
The significance is this: If the Act is passed into law and the above promotion efforts are successful, medical aid in dying (euthanasia) will become part of palliative care and therefore part of the Act. More to the point, the Act will legalize euthanasia in government funded centers throughout the US. The Act is a closet euthanasia bill. (Footnotes omitted).More information to come as we learn more.