Healthcare lie refuted by Stephen Hawking

On July 31, Investors Business Daily published an article on the issue of end of life counseling with the following passage:

People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.

Well, they got it wrong. OK, people make mistakes ... maybe. They retracted the article and published a "correction" with:

This version corrects the original editorial which implied that physicist Stephen Hawking, a professor at the University of Cambridge, did not live in the UK.

Huh? So where's the rest of the correction? According to Stephen Hawking himself:

I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS. I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.

The lies about health care reform perpetrated and spread by many Republicans and right wing media is a tactic that, while it might have been born of ignorance on their part, if not malice, is certainly causing much confusion in the debate. Apparently those opposed to reforming healthcare realize they don't have many valid talking points, or realize the favorable talking points are too good. So they actually want the confusion.

The end of life counseling provision is there to ensure that doctors or other counselors are paid for the service. This is part of making doctor-patient relationships more complete through counseling on this and many other matters. Next thing we'll hear from this opposition is that provisions for dietary counseling is the government telling us what we can and cannot eat.

More will be coming on this.