Posted on 11/24/2011 6:59:08 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Remember when they laughed off, ridiculed and otherwise denied Sarah Palin’s assertion that Obamacare would usher in death panels?
Listen to this neurosurgeon, fresh from a seminar in Washington DC, tell about what it is that the HHS has in store for seniors:
(AUDIO AT LINK)
The Anchoress calls it what it is. Evil:
So if you are a 70 year-old Nancy Pelosi, or Paul Krugman — with a potent private health insurance plan such as the one enjoyed by Members of Congress and other bureaucrats — you will get every appropriate surgery and treatment applicable.
But if you are a 70 year-old former bookkeeper or waitress on Medicare, well — you have swung your last golfclub or danced your last waltz, because the “ethics panel” that assesses your unithood will have no problem inventing a equation that goes something like, “Potential-Tax-revenues-minus-potential-cost-divided-by-social-and-political-value-equals…a negligible unit.
And you’ll be shuffled off to the room with the big screen full of daffodils and excellent speakers blasting Vivaldi, and made “comfortable.”
Assessing human beings as “units” is Evil. Period, full stop. It is a diabolical disorientation. The only people who do not understand that are people who also have difficulty with that inconvenient old “conscience thing“.
The caller to Levin’s show said he was a neurosurgeon, and of German descent. He mentioned his ancestry at the same time he discussed “units” and admitted he was distressed. The source of his distress was very likely his recognition of a the sort of ruthless efficiency someone in his family once knew first hand, either from one side of the ledger, or the other.
Tell me again that elections don’t matter.
You would think it would act like that but it gets worse. Remember Hillarycare? She dealt with this. She did not want a Rush Limbaugh with lots of money getting better care than Joe and Jane Blow so she wanted to make it illegal for a doctor to treat the rich patient differently. That was the overreach that killed her plan. But you know damned well that's the plan. Besides, a dead rich guy is a gubermint windfall if they get the death taxes to their liking.
The death panel Palin referred to is called The Independent Payment Advisory Board in ObamaCare.
My thoughts are that Nancy Pelosi and Mr. Krugman will face that ultimate equalizer, death, just as we all shall. However, their fancy medical plan which they have financed with the blood, sweat and tears of others, will not protect them from whatever His plan is for their lives. Evil will not prevail.
Death panel Bookmark.
Fine with me. I'd rather that than what I've seen with two of my friends' mothers: tons of medications and surgery keeping them alive for years of confused, convalescent misery, running into the millions of dollars, and for what. Both old women moaned that they just wanted to die. But oh, no, we're going to keep you alive for as long as possible so you can lie in that bed month after month while reruns of CSI: Miami play on the little TV by the door. Screw that. I'll take the Vivaldi and the morphine, thank you very much. And bring me a gin & tonic.
Well, that’s fine, hon, but isn’t it better if WE get to make our own choice?
Yes and no. I know people who will hold on forever, and they will cost the tax payers millions and millions of dollars EACH. As technology advances, hospitals will come up with more and more expensive ways to keep humans alive well beyond what is comfortable or useful. If they can pay for it, go for it, I guess. But if we get to the point where everyone’s end-of-life care outstrips their lifetime contributions to the system, we’ll go belly-up, simple as that. Leaving aside all the plangeant rhetoric about the incredible value and sanctity of human life, death is a fact that our society seems determined to deny.
You, nor I, not anyone else should make that decision. It is up to Him.
Taking one’s life, or deciding NOT to fight for life is suicide.
Yes, I suppose we can make cost the limiter.... but as far as Americans being in denial about ‘death’, what is this ‘death’ you speak of? ;)
Yes, I suppose we can make cost the limiter.... but as far as Americans being in denial about ‘death’, what is this ‘death’ you speak of? ;)
That's exactly the point. If you lose control over what measures you can take in an attempt to live healthier or longer, you have ultimately lost control over your own life. If you want to spend your own money on a treatment that you think is worth it, but that the government thinks ‘isn't cost effective’, you should be able to make that personal choice.
Further, it is those who pay for expensive new treatments that keep these treatments in development - ultimately leading to the point at which they are more affordable and available to all for a cheaper price. So many of the things that are now deemed cost effective standard of care treatments where at one time very expensive new treatments. It's a cycle. Very powerful personal computing is now affordable, but wasn't that way in the beginning.
Betsy McCaughey, who read the whole bill, first informed people of the rationing boards written into Obamacare. That spawned all the angry townhalls on the healthcare bill.
Palin just renamed the rationing board as death panels.
There is no "denying" it. Look at the medical advances we hoomins have achieved over the past 50 years.
Our age of living older is growing. I have a "don't pull the plug" living will. My sister has a "pull the plug". I refused her request and told her to get someone else because there was no way in heck I was going to kill her.
I also advised her I would do all I could legally from pulling her plug.
So if Gov. Palin cured cancer, you’d give her hell for not working on athlete’s foot?
Good heavens, someone on FR with a dose of reality on this subject.
The end result of the “my doctor and I (and the greedy nursing home) will decide my health care” philosophy, decoupled with the actual PAYING of these bills (see Medicare), has an obvious and predictable result.
And sorry, folks, denial of heart surgery to demented 95 year olds is NOT euthanasia. As distasteful as it is, when you socialize medicine, (which Medicare/Medicaid certainly has), there will be limits.
No, but you can’t rewrite history. I don’t believe Palin ever claimed to have read all of the over 4000 pages in the healthcare bill.
But somebody did, and informed people as to what was in it.
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