Lawmakers Need to Fight for the Concurrent Care for Children Provision of the Affordable Care Act, No Matter What

In a recent CNN debate about health care, Sen. Ted Cruz claimed people confronted with life-threatening diseases who receive palliative care services were "essentially doped up with some drugs" and told "well, now is your time to go."We find these statements absurdly misrepresentative of the goals of palliative care.If Cruz has his way, caring for people with life-threatening illness or at the end of life may become much more difficult. Cruz's comments seem to reflect a basic ignorance of medical ethics and evidence-based outcomes. His insistence that unrestrained access to high-cost medical interventions is somehow equated to "better health care" is simply unsupported with regard to outcomes. Just because we can do everything does not mean that we _should _do everything--and in the medically fragile population, these heroic interventions can cause more suffering with no clear long-term benefit.   Continue reading...