President Obama held a town hall meeting on health care today in new Hampshire and mentioned the misinformation being spread about "death panels," which former Alaska Gov. and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin mentioned on her Facebook page last Friday.

Palin was referring to a section of the bill that promotes advance care planning -- things like living wills and durable power of attorney. As Facing South reported yesterday, one of the strongest congressional proponents of advance care planning has been U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia, a conservative Republican who has called Palin's claims "nuts."
Obama mentioned Isakson in the following remarks, which came in response to a girl who asked him about an "underlying fear" among the public that they won't get needed care, the Boston Globe reports:
Palin was referring to a section of the bill that promotes advance care planning -- things like living wills and durable power of attorney. As Facing South reported yesterday, one of the strongest congressional proponents of advance care planning has been U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia, a conservative Republican who has called Palin's claims "nuts."
Obama mentioned Isakson in the following remarks, which came in response to a girl who asked him about an "underlying fear" among the public that they won't get needed care, the Boston Globe reports:
"Well . . . I've seen some of those signs,'' the president said to laughter. "Let me just be specific about some things that I've been hearing lately that we just need to dispose of here. The rumor that's been circulating a lot lately is this idea that somehow the House of Representatives voted for "death panels" that will basically pull the plug on grandma because we've decided that we don't -- it's too expensive to let her live anymore. And there are various -- there are some variations on this theme.''Today we offer more details on where this misinformation about "death panels" comes from: a far-right religious group associated with the ministries of Moral Majority founder Rev. Jerry Falwell.
According to a White House transcript, Obama continued:
"It turns out that I guess this arose out of a provision in one of the House bills that allowed Medicare to reimburse people for consultations about end-of-life care, setting up living wills, the availability of hospice, et cetera. So the intention of the members of Congress was to give people more information so that they could handle issues of end-of-life care when they're ready, on their own terms. It wasn't forcing anybody to do anything. This is I guess where the rumor came from.''
"The irony is that actually one of the chief sponsors of this bill originally was a Republican -- then House member, now senator, named Johnny Isakson from Georgia -- who very sensibly thought this is something that would expand people's options. And somehow it's gotten spun into this idea of "death panels." I am not in favor of that. So just I want to -- (applause.) I want to clear the air here.''




I disagree with the idea that Sarah's "death panel" fears are unfounded.
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel is Obama's policy advisor on health care reform, the special adviser for health care at the Office of Management and Budget. He is also a member of Federal Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research that is taking a preliminary look at what procedures will be covered on whom with an eye towards cost cutting.
Please look at this quote from this man, and try to tell me Palin's fears are unfounded. He explicitly states that care should not be guaranteed for someone with Palin's daughter's condition, downs syndrome:
"Conversely, services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed. An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia. A less obvious example Is is guaranteeing neuropsychological services to ensure children with learning disabilities can read and learn to reason."
http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/Where_Civic_Republicanism_and_Deliberative_Democracy_Meet.pdf
Source: "Where Civic Republicanism and Deliberative Democracy Meet", hastings center, 1996 (see link).
Another quote:
"When implemented, the complete lives system produces a priority curve on which individuals aged between roughly 15 and 40 years get the most substantial chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get chances that are attenuated"
source: 'Principles of allocation of scarce medical interventions', January 31, 2009
For details about how this fits in with Obama's "death panel", look at this section from a wallstreet journal article:
http://sbk.online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203609204574312451234786752.html
McCaughey: It means reductions in hip replacements, knee replacements, bypass surgery, angioplasty...
Gigot: Doctors are not going to stop prescribing these things.
McCaughey: In the stimulus package was a provision for computers to be in doctors’ offices and hospitals at bedside--computers that would deliver protocols to doctors electronically on what the government deems cost-effective and appropriate care. There will be penalties for doctors who are not meaningful users of this system. The president appointed Dr. David Blumenthal national coordinator of health information technology, and he’s going to oversee ensuring that doctors obey these protocols. In The New England Journal of Medicine he wrote an article describing how he’s going do it.
Gigot: Won’t Congress push back?
McCaughey: Well, that’s why Peter Orszag, head of the Office of Management and Budget, part of the White House--went to Congress earlier this week and asked for permission to remove those decisions from Congress. He asked Congress to delegate the authority to make these decisions about what Medicare covers and how doctors are paid instead to a body outside of Congress, either MedPAC--a body that already exists, an advisory board--or a council created within the White House. [...]
I don’t believe we can count on the doctors that would be appointed to this to make the right decisions because, for example, the doctors that the president has already chosen to be his chief health advisers are ardent advocates of limiting care for the elderly. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, for example--brother of president’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel-- has written that the elderly should get less care, that Americans are too enamored with high-tech care, and that people who have incurable illnesses--and he uses the example of dementia--should not be guaranteed health care because they no longer contribute to society.
(end quotation)
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More evidence that Sarah has good reason to worry can be seen in Obama's choice of "Science Czar", John Holdren, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Obama's Science Czar wrote a book explicitly advocating forced abortions and mass sterilization. See:
http://zombietime.com/john_holdren/
August 12, 2009 10:32 AM | Reply