Death Panels (1 Viewer)

[tarheel]

This is a rudimentary understanding of "death panel" from Wikipedia.

Death panel" is a political term that originated during a 2009 debate about federal health care legislation to cover the uninsured in the United States. The term was first used in August 2009 by former Republican Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin when she charged that the proposed legislation would create a "death panel" of bureaucrats who would decide whether Americans—such as her elderly parents or child with Down syndrome—were worthy of medical care. Palin's claim, however, was debunked, and it has been referred to as the "death panel" myth;[1] nothing in any proposed legislation would have allowed individuals to be judged to see if they were "worthy" of health care.[2] Palin specified that she was referring to Section 1233 of bill HR 3200 which would have paid physicians for providing voluntary counseling to Medicare patients about living wills, advance directives, and end-of-life care options.

Palin's claim was presented as false and criticized by mainstream news media, fact-checkers, academics, physicians, Democrats, and some Republicans. Other prominent Republicans and conservative talk radio hosts backed Palin's statement. One poll showed that after it spread, about 85% of Americans were familiar with the charge and of those who were familiar with it, about 30% thought it was true.[1] Due to public concern, the provision was removed from the Senate bill and was not included in the law that was enacted, the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In a 2011 statement, the American Society of Clinical Oncology bemoaned the politicization of the issue and said that the proposal should be revisited.


Death panel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So basically I want to know if they exist. The thought came to me when I thought "hey, there's going to be rationing of this newfound healthcare."

When it comes to rationing who gets the short end of the stick? Are old people going to receive more priority over, say, healthy and fit 30-something-year-olds?

Granted I have very, very little knowledge on the HC issue because it's a crapstorm of bias and obscurity.

Do death panels exist, or not?

I'd hate to think that before this mandate passed people were like "NO WAY DEATH PANELS EXIST! That's just sensationalism," to after the mandate is passed, "um, well, it's economics so, uh, yeah, some people are going to be preferred over others when receiving HC."

Would you please help make things clearer?

 

[MrT]

Let's start by noting the specific statute that Sarah Palin claimed was the source for her claim. If you saw a proposal to pay physicians for providing voluntary (read: not mandatory) counseling to Medicare patients about living wills, advance directives, and end-of-life care options, would you classify this proposal as an attempt to create a "death panel?"

My guess is that your answer to that question largely depends on the severity of your political leanings, with only the most rapidly conservative leaning individuals accepting that claim in the affirmative. In fact, the website Politifact labeled the term "Death panels" as the 2009 lie of the year (source: PolitiFact's Lie of the Year: 'Death panels' | PolitiFact) and before individuals start to bemoan Politifact as some bastion of liberal thought, I remind you that they also declared, "If you like your health insurance, you can keep it" as the 2013 lie of the year.

Sarah Palin eventually said during an interview with National Review on Nov. 17, "The term I used to describe the panel making these decisions should not be taken literally." On the other hand, she said that she did not regret the decision because it, "got people thinking and researching...It was quite effective."

 

[Deuce]

"Medicare can pay for an end-of-life consultation with a doctor" and "doctors can be penalized for not following a patient's wishes" do not strike me as a "death panel."