HF 2305: The Iowa Senate HHS Subcommittee is recommending passage of this bill. Senators Costello (R), Salmon (R) and Trone Garriott (D) focused on three lines of a 15-page bill, which say a guardian no longer needs court oversight or approval to remove life-sustaining measures (CPR, feeding tube, ventilator) from an adult "protected person" (yes, this applies only to adults). The law in Iowa since 1985. BTW, they feel really good about removing these protections.
However, they had NO interest in discussing the remainder of the bill that potentially impacts EVERY Iowan. It removes "palliative care" from the duties of a hospice licensee, and creates a new DIY Do-not-resuscitate Out-of-hospital Order, which is a lawsuit-waiting-to-happen for our EMS workers (75 percent of whom are--or were until now--volunteers).
I think I'm done quacking about the obvious threats to Iowans' healthcare access and constitutional rights as patients. Only those who have experienced or watched a loved one experience what it's like to spent 24 hours in the ER or wait four months to see a specialist or suffer harm from a medical error seem to care. Our elected officials no longer consider themselves accountable to constituents. And as HF 2305 has proven, that is now an equal opportunity, bi-partisan (low) standard of practice.
The devil is in the details. As HF 2305 glides through with NO public or legislative debate on its life-threatening provisions, consider what else we will discover AFTER the session has ended.
I wish us all the best. Vaya con Dios.
