We Already Have Death Panels
Please go read Southern Beale’s entire piece, and then pass it on.
Don’t talk to me about death panels, Sarah Palin.
You, who so carelessly bolstered a lie about healthcare reform to score a cheap political point; you, the most craven of political opportunists, who fearmongers about some dystopian socialist/fascist fantasyland; you, who earlier this year were only too happy to accept free medical, dental and veterinary care from the U.S. military for Alaska’s remote villages; you, dear lady, are an idiot.
In your free market wonderland everyone somehow manages to get healthcare, even those who are poor or live in isolated areas, though the poor and isolated in your own state required assistance from the federal government.
And despite all of this, you appear blithely unaware that the free market healthcare system we have now does, indeed, have “death panels.” I’ve been part of a death panel conversation. I know about death panels.
You have no idea what it’s like to be called into a sterile conference room with a hospital administrator you’ve never met before and be told that your mother’s insurance policy will only pay for 30 days in ICU. You can’t imagine what it’s like to be advised that you need to “make some decisions,” like whether your mother should be released “HTD” which is hospital parlance for “home to die,” or if you want to pay out of pocket to keep her in the ICU another week. And when you ask how much that would cost you are given a number so impossibly large that you realize there really are no decisions to make. The decision has been made for you. “Living will” or no, it doesn’t matter. The bank account and the insurance policy have trumped any legal document.
If this isn’t a “death panel” I don’t know what is.
Brava!
Tags: Health Care
Even Geraldo Rivera called Palin a lunatic. Also, the thing that gets me about these angry morons is thatthey got everything they wanted from Bush and how did that work outfor the country?
Even Geraldo Rivera called Palin a lunatic.
Believe it or not, Geraldo actually has credibility on the topic – no joke.
It always amazes me at how brazen the GOP is at projection.
Well, again you attack a person again instead of an issue. No Governor of Delaware D or R has ever pursued Universal Care, are they as evil as Palin? While Minner was Governor, Dennis Williams had a bill for Single Payer/Universal Care and it went nowhere.
Medicaid/medicare does now indeed ask if you have discussed end of life issues and ask ” are you aware of the costs of the last year of life and how ineffective those treatments can be?” I have been through it this year.
I have been though Hospice Care discussions with Medicare folks who discuss these issues so “the transition to the eventual can be smooth”.
Obama/House plan clearly pushes the desire to restrict coverage in the last year of life. In Britain if your care costs more than $35,000 you are out of luck because that figure is the bingo number on whether you get treatment or not.
It is sad how hateful Dems are to people who want healthcare. The Dems have the House, Senate and Governorship and they ignore the issue.
Mike Protack
here he be, the worldz smattest airplane pilot. he gotz it all figgired out. Man, how iz it u aint da govenah yet mike?
Bob Cesca documents more real life death panels (not fabricated ones) run by insurance companies who refuse to pay for life saving treatments and who drop from their rolls expensive patients.
“Medicaid/medicare does now indeed ask if you have discussed end of life issues and ask ” are you aware of the costs of the last year of life and how ineffective those treatments can be?” I have been through it this year.”
Oh, Mike, thank you so much. My doctor has asked me these same questions, and I’m on private insurance and not nearly 60 years old, and have no chronic or other health issues.
My DOCTOR IS TRYING TO KILL ME!!!! JUST LIKE THE GUVERNMINT!!! MY DOCTOR IS A SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST/BORN IN KENYA FACIST/ NAZI!!!!!
Thanks for letting me know what my doctor is really up to.
I’ll take my chances that my Dr talking to me about end of life is considering my interests, not societies. I will not take my chances at a government tribunal, no matter how well inentioned.
Government tribunal? WTF are you talking about?
Do you have a living will, farsider? If not, why not? If so… then what’s the problem?
Farsider is a deather. And a liar. There are no government tribunals, and the fact that you say there are or will be means you are a pathological liar like Sarah Palin, or insane, like Sarah Palin.
Now you see there the truth always hits a nerve.
Remember when the whole Terri Schiavo thing went down in 2005? Well, Michael Smerconish, a somewhat reasonable conservative radio host in Philly on 1210 AM, posted links to easy “Do It Yourself” websites so that his listeners could fashion their own Living Will/ Advance Healthcare Directives so as to not suffer the fate of Mrs. Schiavo. Indeed, Mr. Smerconish, a lawyer himself, encouraged his listeners to get a living will if they did have one.
According to Farsider and Palin and Beck and Limbaugh and Gingrich, Michael Smerconish is thus pure evil and a member of the death panel.
You cannot put the ‘deather’ or any other label on me. I simply believe that the government should have nothing to do with this, you probably disagree.
No “pure evil” is government intervention in private affairs. The shame of the Terry Shivo incident was the unwarranted public intrusion on a private matter.
Farsider, please provide the section of the healthcare bill where it establishes a government tribunal to decide who lives or dies. I assume you have that section memorized or readily available since you are so confident as to its existence and the “truth.” If you do not provide it within 2 minutes, you will be deemed a liar.
You are a deather, Farsider. Are you a “birther,” too?
Why go through the charade of making him provide the section when we already know it is not there, and he got the idea from loons like Sarah Palin?
The “death panel” “tribunal” line came from some insurance industry/GOP focus group which found it was especially effective with the gullible.
I don’t need 2 minutes to call him a liar.
Funny how the conservatives are worried about mythical government “death panels” deciding the fate of individuals based on cost-benefit analyses, but care nothing about the government actually killing hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, and children indiscriminately with real bombs.
Tisk-tisk.
Oh, and do you remember all the conservatives protesting the VA’s denial of treatment to wounded veterans because of the cost?
What, you don’t remember that?
Deather Farsider wrote: I simply believe that the government should have nothing to do with this
FACT CHECK: No ‘death panel’ in health care bill
“Funny how the conservatives are worried about mythical government “death panels” deciding the fate of individuals based on cost-benefit analyses, but care nothing about the government actually killing hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, and children indiscriminately with real bombs.”
Bingo, A1!!!
Also, it’s crazy that these birthers and crazies don’t realize that there are “death panels” at every health insurance company, too. They’re called “Medical Review Departments” and they determine which patients can receive which high-cost, often life-saving treatments. Many insurance companies DENY necessary care to eligible patients. Many patients have DIED over the past decade because of this.
Of course, that’s OK. Because that’s just the FREE MARKET at work. Allowing the government to do the same is just dreadful socialism at work.
These people are fucking nuts. Absolutely. Fucking. Nuts.
The point is whether or not to allow another expansion of government nothing more, once they are large and in charge or our health care all kinds of stuff come into play. Allowing viturally any intrusion on our liberties, justified by ‘our health’.
I guess that anonone wants to bring other issues in, not quite sure where he’s headed with that. If Obama wants to stop the military action, I reckon he could just pull em out. He is large and in charge now right ?
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
Voltaire
So – Obama makes us believe the absurd notion that government run healthcare is the bomb and the democracs commit the atrocity of passing it. got it. Thx
[Off-Topic]
Mike,
Big congrats on passing the 100 mark. You deserve to be very proud of that achievement; few people in your previous condition have ever or will ever achieve that goal. I really admire your tenacity in reaching it.
Best wishes for a long and healthy life (at least until you face the government “death panel”).
Farsider – please state your direct experience with government-funded healthcare’s failings. (Presumably you are either a Canadian citizen, elderly/poor on Medicaid, or a member of the U.S. armed forces, so you will be able to do this.)
If you have no direct experience, please provide independent, non-partisan, well-sourced research you’ve read which highlights to the shortcomings of a government-funded healthcare plan. I know there is good research out there to support your point, because although I am a supporter of healthcare reform I recognize that no solution is perfect.
Finally, assuming you have read some legitimate research, please compare and contrast the possible failings of any of the current health reform bills to the failings of the current system and defend the thesis that the current system is preferable.
If you cannot do these things, I question whether you are qualified to speak so declaratively on the matter. Don’t feel bad, though. Lord knows none of the ranting a-holes driving this ‘debate’ are qualified.
Finally, the fact that you call a policy initiative an ‘atrocity’ shows the lack of perspective and the penchant for temper tantrums that dominate our political life. We really should understand the definitions of words before we use them. Admittedly this is a problem on both sides of the aisle.
As I said before:
The point is whether or not to allow another expansion of government nothing more, once they are large and in charge or our health care all kinds of stuff come into play. Allowing viturally any intrusion on our liberties, justified by ‘our health’.
“I simply believe that the government should have nothing to do with this, you probably disagree.”
This is the most honest, intelligent thing farsider has ever posted at DL.
Well, with that sort of blanket statement I guess you’re okay with eliminating the “intrusion” the military, police, post office, medicare, etc.
The military is focused outside of the country and is restricted in its ability to intrude on our private affaris. The post office is a private company. Medicare should certainly not grow beyond its existing parameters and should be reduced where possible.
This goverment is growing like a cancer and should be treated as one.
Hey anonone, that quote reminds me of man-made global warming.