Death Panels?

From the Politico: (click here for the entire article)

Former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin defended her claim that the Democratic health care proposal would create “death panels” in a statement Wednesday night slamming President Barack Obama.

“Yesterday President Obama responded to my statement that Democratic health care proposals would lead to rationed care; that the sick, the elderly and the disabled would suffer the most under such rationing; and that under such a system, these ‘unproductive’ members of society could face the prospect of government bureaucrats determining whether they deserve health care,” Palin wrote in a note on her Facebook page.

“The provision that President Obama refers to is Section 1233 of HR 3200, entitled ‘Advance Care Planning Consultation.’ With all due respect, it’s misleading for the president to describe this section as an entirely voluntary provision that simply increases the information offered to Medicare recipients,” she continued.

“Section 1233 authorizes advanced care planning consultations for senior citizens on Medicare every five years, and more often ‘if there is a significant change in the health condition of the individual ... or upon admission to a skilled nursing facility, a long-term care facility... or a hospice program.’"

The White House and Democratic lawmakers have blasted Palin in recent days for suggesting that her own son, Trig, would have had to face a bureaucratic panel to get access to health care under the provision in the House health care proposal because he was born with Down syndrome.

“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. Such a system is downright evil,” Palin wrote last week.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs identified Palin on Wednesday as one of the GOP leaders he says is spreading “wrong” information about the health care debate.

Palin has come under a lot of fire for her rhetoric, posted last week on her facebook page, concerning ObamaCare. This fire has come both from the Left and some on the Right for whom Sarah continues to be an embarrassment. On the Right, the criticism has been that this sort of hyperbole, referring to the end-of-life counseling sessions mandated under the House health care reform bill as "death panels", is a type of hyperbole that is unproductive and makes conservatives look shrill.

Now watch this video clip that ABCNews.com ran on its webpage as "Obama Debunks Health Bill's 'Death Panel' Rule".



So who are you going to believe, Palin or Obama?

Well, . . . then there's this neat little piece from a week or so ago in Oregon where they have state-run health care. You know, the good old government option.

From an article at ABCNews.com . . .

The news from Barbara Wagner's doctor was bad, but the rejection letter from her insurance company was crushing.

The 64-year-old Oregon woman, whose lung cancer had been in remission, learned the disease had returned and would likely kill her. Her last hope was a $4,000-a-month drug that her doctor prescribed for her, but the insurance company refused to pay.

What the Oregon Health Plan did agree to cover, however, were drugs for a physician-assisted death. Those drugs would cost about $50.

"It was horrible," Wagner told ABCNews.com. "I got a letter in the mail that basically said if you want to take the pills, we will help you get that from the doctor and we will stand there and watch you die. But we won't give you the medication to live."

Notice how ABC spins this horrible act as something done by an "insurance company." Sort of implies that this is some private, evil, corporation. Not so fast. A closer look reveals what ABC simply will not state explicitly, that this is a government insurance company--the Oregon Health Plan. This is ObamaCare at the state level.

So, are we going to believe Obama . . . or observation?

I think Palin is right.