Do we really need 'death panels' to do the obvious?

'Death panels' controversy: Is Obama avoiding Congress? (The Christian Science Monitor)
Washington – In a move that could resuscitate the partisan battle over what Sarah Palin dubbed "Death Panels," the Obama Administration is set to implement a Controversial federal health-care provision by executive authority. The new rule would pay doctors to consult with Medicare patients who want voluntary counseling about health-care options in the case of terminal illness. The Obama Administration casts the change as minor, saying that these are common-sense discussions t...

Fox News Tries To Rehabilitate Palins Discredited Death Panels Smear
As The New York Times reported yesterday, the Obama Administration has enacted Medicare Regulations to include an end-of-life planning provision similar to one struck out of the Health Care Reform Bill after Sarah Palin “touched off a political storm over ‘Death Panels.’” Palin’s “death panels” accusation wasn’t just a lie, it was PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year for 2009. But good ol’ Fox News resuscitated the lie and gave it new life by j...

'Death panels' controversy: Is Obama avoiding Congress?
President Obama talks with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in the Oval Office Nov. 4. Health and Human Services has included expanded 'voluntary advance care planning' consultations in the rules it is writing for the health-care reform law. Critics deride the idea as 'Death Panels.' In a move that could resuscitate the partisan battle over what Sarah Palin dubbed "death panels," the Obama Administration is set to implement a Controversial federal health-care provi...

Backdoor Death Panels?
When the Health Care overhaul was stumbling its way through Congress early this year, Sarah Palin was excoriated by Democrats for suggesting that the nascent law included “Death Panels” for the elderly in order to save costs of treating the oldest and Most Expensive patients. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Palin wrote that Obama had asked Congress to create an independent Medicare Advisory Council--an unaccountable group of experts charged with containing Medicare costs. She p...

Obama Brings Back End of Life Counseling
When it was discovered that ObamaCare included funding for end of life counseling, Controversy erupted and that language had to be stripped from the bill Obama eventually signed. So, how is it that end of life counseling is now being funded by the Federal Government? Through Regulation, of course. The New York Times reported that this is the way President Obama will operate for the next two years. The final version of the Health Care Legislation, signed into law by President Obama in March, a...

Number Of Uninsured Americans Soars To Over 50 Million
Less than a year ago, Francis Campos-Dunn was still working at a county Hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area, helping patients navigate the often-maddening Bureaucracy required to draw on their Health Insurance. These days, she has a new set of problems to navigate: how to manage her own care without any Insurance of her own, having slipped into an unfortunate but fast-growing slice of the population--Americans who have lost their jobs and now lack health coverage. Back when was still workin...

Health plans for high-risk patients lag
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s administration and states are stepping up their efforts to motivate people to buy government-sponsored health plans for high-risk patients, as the new program continues to attract only a fraction of the projected customers. At the same time, since the high-risk Insurance pools began in late summer and early fall, the medical bills have been much higher than anticipated in a few states, raising the question of whether the $5 billion that Congress has al...

Health plans for high-risk consumers far less popular than expected
One of the first parts of the new Health Care law ready for consumers — special health plans devoted to the Insurance Industry's rejects — is attracting only a fraction of the predicted customers, prompting the Obama Administration and states to step up their strategies to motivate people to buy them. At the same time, since the plans opened for business in the late summer and early fall, the medical bills so far are, in at least a few states, much higher than anticipated, raising th...

Obamacare bust
The least surprising news of the year is… From the Washington Post: One of the first parts of the new Health Care law ready for consumers - special health plans devoted to the Insurance Industry’s rejects - is attracting only a fraction of the predicted customers, prompting the Obama Administration and states to step up their strategies to motivate people to buy them. At the same time, since the plans opened for business in the late summer and early fall, the medical bi...

Sneaking end-of-life consultations into Obamacare
Jae C. Hon/AP Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made the term"Death Panels"famous during the debate over ObamaCare last year. A new Regulation has revived the debate. During the debate over ObamaCare last year, Controversy erupted over a Medicare provision related to end-of-life consultations with doctors. Following well-publicized criticism from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin concerning government "death panels," the provision was promptly dropped. But now the New York Times reports that it has be...

Death is too important a subject to be left to the mercy of rampaging, reality-defying numbskulls
What was old is new again: Since the "Death Panels" lies are back, it seems only appropriate to bring back this offering by the great R. J. Matson from last year's Holiday Season. by Ken I know we're supposed to make nice to those poor misunderstood Teabaggers, and bow before the legitimacy of their grievances. It's just kind of hard when, besotted by their newfound power, they're off on a screaming rampage, wildly wielding their weapons of psychotic destruction against every vestige of realit...

President Gets Around Annoying Voters, Instills Death Panels By Regulation
Some of you may have missed this story since it was published on the day after Christmas (and a Sunday at that), but Obama’s Death Panels are back, this time via the president’s fiat regulatory powers. Since it was easy to have missed, I’ve decided to post the story today (Monday) so that more people might see it now that Christmas and the weekend both are over. You might recall the end of life care policies that were once in ObamaCare. You might also remember the political fir...

Sneaking It In
Human Events: Bureaucrats Secretly Implement ObamaCare by Tony Lee 12/27/2010 When ObamaCare passed in the partisan manner in which it did, the liberal establishment and its ever growing army of pipsqueak transcribers in the mainstream media said ObamaCare’s passage would be a boon for Democrats and mocked those like Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli who spoke out against ObamaCare and called the measure Unconstitutional, particularly the Individual Mandate requirement that would com...

White House Pushing Back Against Revived Chatter About End-Of-Life Planning
The White House is denying that a new Medicare Regulation revives language dropped from the Health Care Reform Bill that covered voluntary end-of-life planning sessions between doctors and patients. The policy was removed from the Health Care bill after Republicans and right-wing opponents of the bill construed the provision as creating "Death Panels" for old people. The New York Times reported yesterday that beginning January 1st: Under the new policy, outlined in a Medicare regulation, the...

Republicans Turn To Insurance Company Lobbyists To Turn Back Health Care Reform
John Boehner and company are looking to their old K Street friends to overturn Health Care Legislation. Three recently hired Republican aides — two set to work in senior positions on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, and one for soon-to-be Speaker John Boehner — spent the past years lobbying on behalf of Insurance Companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and other corporate interest groups with a vested interest in weakening or repealing the law. Two weeks ago, incoming Ene...

This Week's Health Industry News
With the Congress in adjournment and many business people taking off the time between holidays, we do not expect any substantive health industry news this week. But we could be surprised. Take, for instance, the news reported Sunday by our colleague Robert Pear in Washington. The Obama Administration, through an administrative rule, is resurrecting the notion of end-of-life planning services for older Americans — the same sort of planning that was falsely characterized as “Death Panels”

Rep.-Elect Walsh Joins Just Four Other Republicans In Forgoing Government Health Care For Themselves
© Unknown Responding to Rep.-elect Andy Harris' (R-MD) hypocritical demand for government-sponsored health coverage last month, Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) circulated a letter among his colleagues calling on Harris and other members of Congress who want to Repeal President Obama's Health Care law to forgo their own government Health Care plans. At least four GOP congressmen have already announced they will turn down their congressional benefits, and a recent poll found that a majority America...

THE HILL: White House Tries To Smother New Death Panel Talk. Get that pillow off of my face!
THE HILL: White House Tries To Smother New “Death Panel” Talk. Get that pillow off of my face! ...

CNN Poll: Americans Still Oppose Individual Mandate, 6 in 10 Oppose Individual Mandate that Requires all Americans to Buy Health
According to a recent CNN/Opinions Dynamics poll , Americans still oppose the Individual Mandate provisions that requires all individuals to purchase Health Care Insurance. By a 60% to 38% margin, Americans oppose the individual mandate. Also, a majority of Americans polled oppose ObamaCare overall. CNN states that the number of people opposed is less than earlier this year. Maybe they would like to check out the Rasmussen Poll, where 60% oppose and want the the government take over of health...

President Gets Around Annoying Voters, Instills Death Panels By Regulation
Some of you may have missed this story since it was published on the day after Christmas (and a Sunday at that), but Obama’s Death Panels are back, this time via the president’s fiat regulatory powers. Since it was easy to have missed, I’ve decided to post the story today (Monday) so that more people might see it now that Christmas and the weekend both are over. You might recall the end of life care policies that were once in ObamaCare. You might also remember the political fi...

President Gets Around Annoying Voters, Instills Death Panels By Regulation
Some of you may have missed this story since it was published on the day after Christmas (and a Sunday at that), but Obama's Death Panels are back, this time via the president's fiat regulatory powers. Since it was easy to have missed, I've decided to post the story today (Monday) so that more people might see it now that Christmas and the weekend both are over. You might recall the end of life care policies that were once in ObamaCare. You might also remember the political firestorm these death...

The Median Voter Supports The Affordable Care Act
We’ve seen this before, but today CNN has another poll (PDF) confirming that the Affordable Care Act’s conservative critics are a minority: I’m not 100 percent sure if “not liberal enough” is the way I would describe the law. But you make the ACA better by making it more aggressive. That’s a Public Option, but it’s also more forceful implementation of the Independent Medicare Advisory Panel concept and a more aggressive phase-out of the tax subsidy for...

On the Trail of Elusive Facts
Today when I was looking for something else I stumbled upon a headline from the Washington Examiner — “How ObamaCare keeps families trapped in Poverty.” The article, by Mark Hemingway, appeared to be one more attempt to link the “doc fix” Medicare reimbursement issue to the the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). As I’ve explained in the past, the Medicare reimbursement shortfalls that have to be “fixed” every year are not the re...

Obamacare: Barely implemented, but already over-budget and under-serving
One of the few programs already active in ObamaCare is the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Program, a temporary measure that provides money for states to establish high-risk Health Insurance pools for people with pre-existing conditions. Unfortunately, the program's results so far leave much to be desired. The problem is not that it isn't working for the people in it. The problem is that very few people seem interested, and the government is paying through the nose just to accommodate the few w...

Death Panels Regulation Begins Obamas Rule by Fiat
Ben Johnson, FloydReports.com In a foretaste of outrages to come, the Obama Administration managed to sneak out a federal Regulation paying doctors to provide “end of life counseling” to those covered by ObamaCare. The Medicare rule, which Congress never voted on, may encourage thousands to forego lifesaving treatment. This move is a voluntary precursor to the inevitable Rationing engendered by Socialized Medicine. Many conservative media outlets have objected to the pro-death aspe...