On August 7, 2009 former Alaskan Governor said this about Obamacare, “seniors and the disabled ‘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.” It was roundly dismissed as crazy by the political left. In fact, it was Politifact’s 2009 Lie of The Year.
Four years later, MSNBC contributor Mark Halperin admitted yesterday on the Steve Malzberg Show for Newsmax TV that death panels are included in Obamacare. And that they’ll be used to control costs.
(Relevant portion begins at 8 minute mark)
STEVE MALZBERG: I think they focused on the death panels which will be coming, call them what you will. Rationing is part of it.
MARK HALPERIN: I agree. Huge. It’s going to be a huge issue, and that’s something else about which the President was not fully forthcoming and straightforward.
MALZBERG: Alright, so you believe that there will be rationing, AKA death panels.
HALPERIN: It’s built into the plan. It’s not like a guess or like a judgment. That’s going to be part of how costs are controlled.
MALZBERG: Yeah, okay.
HALPERIN: But I’ll say something else about that issue which is we do need to do have some of that in this country because we can’t afford to spend so much on end-of-life care. A very high percentage of our healthcare spending is for a very small number of people at the last stages of their life. I’m not saying the system shouldn’t allow that, but there’s too much cost. There are judgments have to be made. We have to decide…
MALZBERG: Made by who, Mark? Mark, made by who? The government?
HALPERIN: By individuals. No, by individuals. And health insurance companies.
Even with an individual mandate, it’s impossible to keep health care costs down with young, healthy Americans in the same pool health care pool as the sick and elderly, who will continue to drive up premiums. The young will get out of the government pool, pay the penalties, and we’ll be back to square one on how to make health insurance more affordable. Hence, another example of the sterility of big, liberal government programs.
And having government dictating appropriate medical treatments is pernicious in the extreme. This administration couldn’t properly build a website; do you trust them with your health care?