Senator Chuck Grassley says colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee have dumped a provision in their health care reform plan that has sparked controversy.
Earlier this week Grassley said Americans had "every right to fear" the idea of letting Medicare pay for the elderly to have counseling sessions with their doctors about "end of life" issues, like a living will.
Early Thursday afternoon, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about Grassley’s statements on Wednesday. Gibbs quoted another senator who suggested such claims about a so-called "death panel" were meant to "gin up fear."
Grassley, in a prepared statement released later Thursday afternoon, said the Senate Finance Committee had "dropped end-of-life provisions from consideration entirely because of the way they coud be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly." According to Grassley, the provisions were "poorly cobbled together" in one of the three bills developed by committees in the U.S. House.
Grassley is among a bipartisan "Gang of Six" from the Senate Finance Committee who are meeting behind closed doors to try to find a compromise on health care reform.
Read Grassley’s statement, as well as the remarks from White House press secretary Robert Gibbs .