Grassly, Gingrich for "Death Panels" before they were against it? Beck hated Healthcare? Whaa??

oh dear: GOP Supported End-of-Life Counseling in 2003 Medicare Bill - Swampland - TIME.com

You would think that if Republicans wanted to totally mischaracterize a health care provision and demagogue it like nobody's business, they would at least pick something that the vast majority of them hadn't already voted for just a few years earlier. Because that's not just shameless, it's stupid.

 Yes, that's right. Remember the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill, the one that passed with the votes of 204 GOP House members and 42 GOP Senators? Anyone want to guess what it provided funding for? Did you say counseling for end-of-life issues and care? Ding ding ding!! 

Let's go to the bill text, shall we? "The covered services are: evaluating the beneficiary's need for pain and symptom management, including the individual's need for hospice care; counseling the beneficiary with respect to end-of-life issues and care options, and advising the beneficiary regarding advanced care planning." The only difference between the 2003 provision and the infamous Section 1233 that threatens the very future and moral sanctity of the Republic is that the first applied only to terminally ill patients. Section 1233 would expand funding so that people could voluntarily receive counseling before they become terminally ill. 

So either Republicans were for death panels in 2003 before turning against them now--or they're lying about end-of-life counseling in order to frighten the bejeezus out of their fellow citizens and defeat health reform by any means necessary. Which is it, Mr. Grassley ("Yea," 2003)?

Matt Taibbi - Taibblog – Newt Gingrich Changes What’s Left of his Mind on End-of-life Care - True/Slant

More than 20 percent of all Medicare spending occurs in the last two months of life. Gundersen Lutheran Health System in La Crosse, Wisconsin has developed a successful end-of-life, best practice that combines: 1) community-wide advance care planning, where 90 percent of patients have advance directives; 2) hospice and palliative care; and 3) coordination of services through an electronic medical record. The Gundersen approach empowers patients and families to control and direct their care. The Dartmouth Health Atlas has documented that Gundersen delivers care at a 30 percent lower rate than the national average ($18,359 versus $25,860). If Gundersen’s approach was used to care for the approximately 4.5 million Medicare beneficiaries who die every year, Medicare could save more than $33 billion a year.     

via Health Care Rx: Across the Country, Some Systems Are Getting It Right – Newt Gingrich.

That was Newt Gingrich just a few months ago praising the “Advance Directives” practiced by a hospital in Wisconsin. Advance Directives are another word for the end-of-life consultations that the teabggers have been flipping out over of late. Gingrich loved them a few months ago.

Perhaps the checks from Cigna, Aetna and United Healthcare hadn't cleared yet. Or perhaps calling them Death Panels wasn't politically expedient for the sweetheart deal the industry got on that cash burning pile of shit known as Medicate Part D.

And then there's Glenn Beck's about face as captured on The Daily Show. Apparently he had a real epiphany in the past few months about us having the GREATEST HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IN THE WORRRLLLDDDDD:

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This ain't 1950. We're not going to lose the tape like they lost those Honeymooners episodes. If you said it 2 years ago, there's gonna be a record.  Born again healthcare advocates, I assume? Baptized by lobbyist cash?