"death panels" obamacare

[MissBrattified]

Originally Posted by Twisp

I wish someone could show proof of these death panels. Everyone says this but no one can show where it is the case in his health care bill.

There are no death panels IN the bill. The blog link that coadie provided clarified that point. Here it is again: http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.co...ath-panel.html

The blog includes an iPaper file of the entire article by Dr. Emanuel, Principles for allocation of scarce medical interventions, which is a chilling little read.

If the critics, who hold themselves in the highest of intellectual esteem, had bothered to do something other than react, they would have realized that the approach to health care to which Palin was referring was none other than that espoused by key Obama health care adviser Dr. Ezekial Emanuel (brother of Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel).


From the blog:

"The next question is, whether Dr. Emanuel's proposal bears any connection to current Democratic proposals. There is no single Democratic proposal at this point, only a series of proposals and concepts. To that extent, Palin's comments properly are viewed as a warning shot not to move to Dr. Emanuel's concept of health care rationing based on societal worth, rather than a critique of a specific bill ready for vote."


"Certainly, no Democrat is proposing a "death panel," or withholding care to the young or infirm. To say such a thing would be political suicide.

But one interesting concept which is central to the concepts being discussed is the creation of a panel of "experts" to make the politically unpopular decisions on allocating health care resources. In a letter to the Senate, Barack Obama expressed support for such a commission:"

I am committed to working with the Congress to fully offset the cost of health care reform by reducing Medicare and Medicaid spending by another $200 to $300 billion over the next 10 years, and by enacting appropriate proposals to generate additional revenues. These savings will come not only by adopting new technologies and addressing the vastly different costs of care, but from going after the key drivers of skyrocketing health care costs, including unmanaged chronic diseases, duplicated tests, and unnecessary hospital readmissions.

To identify and achieve additional savings, I am also open to your ideas about giving special consideration to the recommendations of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), a commission created by a Republican Congress. Under this approach, MedPAC's recommendations on cost reductions would be adopted unless opposed by a joint resolution of the Congress. This is similar to a process that has been used effectively by a commission charged with closing military bases, and could be a valuable tool to help achieve health care reform in a fiscally responsible way."--B.O.




Palin's comment:

"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society’ whether they are worthy of health care.”

Technically, Palin did not say that the health care reform bill contains "death panels", but was rather a statement against an overall mindset, which DOES have close connections with the white house and with those who are in charge of writing this bill.

However, I agree with the blogger--it would be political suicide for any Democrat to approve such an extreme measure, and as of yet, the health reform bill has nothing in it that resembles a "death panel." It is obvious, though, that on principle, Obama, his cronies and other Dems do support such committees, and the philosophy that people should be treated according to their overall value to society, and with their actual life expectancy in mind. (As opposed to a maximized, ideal number.)