Comfort Care or Hastened Death? Assisted Suicide and the Medicare Hospice Benefit

Assisted suicide is a contested issue in American law and medicine, raising questions over individual autonomy, patient rights, medical ethics, and government interests in protecting life. Federal law prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for services intended to cause or assist a death, but this prohibition does not apply to ordinary palliative care.With several states legalizing physician-assisted suicide and more considering doing the same, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requested information in a recent proposed rule on the overlap between “medical aid in dying” (MAID) and Medicare-funded hospice care. CMS sought information about how it can ensure compliance with federal law, promote program integrity, and safeguard against fraud in states where assisted suicide is legal.This raises broader questions, including about how policymakers distinguish between comfort care at the end of life and practices intended to hasten death. Join us for a panel examining the current legal and regulatory landscape surrounding assisted suicide in the United States.Featuring:Alexander Raikin, Visiting Fellow in Bioethics, Ethics and Public Policy CenterDr. Jeffrey A. Singer, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute(Moderator) Dan Troy, Managing Director, Berkeley Research Group