Californians Can Choose to Die – With the Help of Taxpayers

California’s aid-in-dying law contains a provision allowing doctors and hospitals to opt out of helping terminally ill patients access medications that would help them hasten their deaths, but that same exemption will not be carved out for state taxpayers, U.S. News has learned. The state government plans to assist in the cost of providing life-ending medications and doctor visits using $2.3 million already quietly tucked into Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget in January, according to a spokesperson for California’s Department of Health Care Services.