PelosiCare's Death Panel (Pages 111-118)

The newest Health Care reform bill presented by Nancy Pelosi Thursday includes a 'death panel'.

(1) IN GENERAL.—There is established a private-public advisory committee which shall be a panel of medical and other experts to be known as the Health Benefits Advisory Committee to recommend covered benefits and essential, enhanced,

and premium plans. - Page 111, HR's ‘Affordable Health Care for America Act'

The job of this panel would be to define acceptable treatment standards and I would suspect that would include who gets what treatment. So guess who does not get treatment that they otherwise would. The very old and also the very young. The people who support this can argue all they want about this, however, this is that they have in the UK and other countries with socialist health care systems and this is exactly what happens.

The last time around, the 'Death Panel' argument somehow got mixed up in the end of life counseling. That was not the Death Panel provision. It is this one that plans to define care that is.

A couple of quick comments:

- Pelosi proclaimed that this bill will bring medical coverage to 36 million Americans who are currently uninsured. Not said was that millions of them can get insurance now but opt not to, mainly because they are young and healthy and do not see the need to overpay for health care in relation to the risk of not having it.

- Pelosi also failed to note that many of those 36 million are being force to get health care because they will be over-billed in order to fund care for others. This in effect is a tax on the young.

- See my post on this issue here:
"Mr. President. If Mandatory Health Insurance is not a Tax..."

- Also see my comments on better reform for health care here:
"Real Health Care Insurance Reform (and it does not take 1,000+ Pages!)"

UPDATE:

Seems that the other death panel provision is in this bill as well:

The Medicare end-of-life planning provision that 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said was tantamount to "death panels" for seniors is staying in the latest Democratic health care bill unveiled Thursday.

The provision allows Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling to help beneficiaries deal with the complex and painful decisions families face when a loved one is approaching death. - Fox News

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