Guest opinion: "The Patient Anguish Is Never-ending Act"

Aug 10, 2019 Kim Callinan Kim Callinan author

Recently introduced legislation in the Senate, the so-called “Patients Rights Act” (S. 1993), should be renamed the “Patient Anguish Is Neverending Act” (PAIN Act) because that is exactly what will happen if this bill is enacted.

This inhumane bill would withhold federal funding (including Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act) from any health care entity that supports their patients with these or any other requests that intentionally shorten or end life, no matter what the patient wants or how much they are suffering. For example, it would make it virtually impossible for a terminally ill person to end their suffering and die peacefully, even when life-sustaining treatment violates the patient’s explicit stated wishes verbally or in writing.

Read the full op-ed featured in the Billings Gazette by clicking here.