The American Spectator : IPAB Is an Acronym for 'Death Panel'

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The Right Prescription

IPAB Is an Acronym for ‘Death Panel’

By David Catron on 4.22.11 @ 6:09AM

Obamacare’s “Independent Payment Advisory Board” was created to deny care to seniors.

Contemplating the 2012 election that can already be seen looming on the distant horizon, the President’s advisors were no doubt hoping that the “death panel” debate was… well… dead. But Obama himself inadvertently resurrected it when, in response to Republican budget proposals, he claimed that Medicare costs will be kept under control by the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). Obamacare opponents have been screaming about this committee since it was first added to the “reform” bill. And, since that time, anyone with the temerity to call it by its proper name — death panel — has been vilified by the Democrats and the “news” media. Nonetheless, that’s precisely what IPAB will be. Its sole purpose is to cut funding for some health care services seniors now take for granted. And those cuts will kill people.

IPAB was created pursuant to section 3403 of the ironically named Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), and its ostensible purpose is to “control costs.” In reality, it will do nothing at all about costs. Instead, the board’s fifteen “experts” will impose old-fashioned price controls. Before Obamacare was signed into law in March of 2010, only Congress had the power to make changes to Medicare’s reimbursement rates. But PPACA, for all intents and purposes, transfers that power to this tiny cadre of presidential appointees who will have no accountability to the voters. In theory, IPAB can only propose changes to Medicare’s payment rates. In practice, however, the board’s proposals will take effect automatically unless Congress passes contrary legislation and the President signs it into law.

This concentrates a huge amount of power in the hands of these fifteen people. As Obama’s former Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orszag, phrased it last year in a discussion at the Economic Club of Washington: “This institution could prove to be far more important to the future of our fiscal health than, for example, the Congressional Budget Office. It has an enormous amount of potential power.” This comment suggests that the Obama administration always intended to maintain the country’s “fiscal health” by stinting on Granny’s physical health. Hyperbole? Consider Orszag’s description of the automatic implementation feature of IPAB’s proposals: “So the default is now switched in a very important way on the biggest driver of our long-term costs, which is the Medicare program.”

Considering that IPAB’s mission involves Medicare cuts, one can’t help but wonder if Obama’s political team was comfortable with how much emphasis he put on it during last week’s budget discussions. He made it abundantly clear that, if spending rises faster than expected, he “will give the independent commission the authority to make additional savings by further improving Medicare.” But the relevant provision of PPACA was obviously written to keep IPAB below the radar until the President, and the Democrat majority in the Senate, have survived the 2012 election cycle. The law doesn’t require the board to produce its first recommendations until 2014. Thus, a safely reelected Obama would have time to submit even controversial nominations for IPAB membership, which a friendly Senate would happily confirm.

Such political considerations notwithstanding, Obama probably wasn’t worried. He no doubt sees PPACA’s death panels as a feature rather than a bug. This sentiment is shared of most advocates of socialized medicine. In a piece titled, “Why ‘death panels’ are a necessary evil,” columnist Jay Bookman captured this progressive consensus when he wrote that “Death panels exist, they will exist in any conceivable system of health-care delivery, and we all know they are necessary but prefer to ignore it.” For these people, it’s either us or Granny: “Somebody has to say no to the terminal patient who refuses to acknowledge that he or she is terminal and demands hopeless if expensive treatment.… Somebody has to have the power to rule that Procedure A or Drug A is more cost-effective than Procedure B or Drug B.… Even Heaven has a gatekeeper.”

With this last snide flourish about St. Peter, Bookman inadvertently stumbles upon the thing that makes many people, of all political persuasions, uneasy about the amount of power that has been given to IPAB. The members of this board will be mere mortals, installed by a president whose choice of appointees thus far has shown little divine inspiration. Thus, even some Democrats have grave concerns. Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz (D-PA), for example, is among the co-sponsors of a bill that would repeal IPAB. In a statement released last week she said, “Congress must assume responsibility for legislating sound health care policy for Medicare beneficiaries.… Abdicating this responsibility, whether to insurance companies or an unelected commission, would undermine our ability to represent the needs of the seniors.”

The tragic irony here is that costs can be controlled without pulling the plug on Granny. There are market-based alternatives to government rationing. Despite what we have been repeatedly told by progressive policy wonks, health care is not a unique universe in which economic forces fail to operate properly. It is, in reality, possible to utilize the market to control costs. One plan for doing so has been put forward by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, who would introduce competition among insurers, realign tax incentives and remove some of the regulatory morass that reduces the efficiency of health care providers. This market-based approach was used with success in the Medicare Part-D program, which was actually starting to drive down drug costs until the Democrats began meddling with it after retaking Congress in 2006.

Another alternative is the “Purple Health Plan,” proposed by Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff. As David Hogberg reports at Investor’s Business Daily, this plan seeks to “achieve the liberal goal of universal care via a market-oriented voucher.” A lot of prominent economists have endorsed it, including Nobel laureates George Akerlof and Thomas Schelling. Kotlikoff’s basic idea is to “trade in” outmoded ideas, like the employer-based tax exclusion and the major federal health programs, and use the money thus saved to provide Americans with vouchers that we would use to buy our own health insurance plans. There are features to this plan that will incur the displeasure of free market purists, including its own panel of physicians who would make arbitrary decisions, but the point is that it is another choice.

Unfortunately, choice is not a popular concept with the President and his health care apparatchiks at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). For them, “cost control” means government-imposed rationing of care to the elderly. Obama’s CMS administrator and lead health czar has often praised IPAB’s deadly British prototype, the National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE) and has famously averred that “The decision is not whether or not we will ration care; the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.” The problem is that Obamacare’s death panel, as Sarah Palin correctly dubbed IPAB in the Wall Street Journal, will end up closing a lot of aging eyes — permanently.

About the Author

David Catron is a health care revenue cycle expert who has spent more than twenty years working for and consulting with hospitals and medical practices. He has an MBA from the University of Georgia and blogs at Health Care BS.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (128) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

Robbins Mitchell| 4.22.11 @ 6:26AM

Well,if the IPAB ever dares to presume to stick its reactionary neo-nazi nose into my life and try to force its will on me,they are going to find out the acronym stands for I Pitch A Bitch..

Bob K.| 4.22.11 @ 10:40AM

This is what happens when the Legislative Branch of our government refuses to take responsibility and control of the laws it passes. They pass them on to the Executive Branch of the Government which uses it's bloodless, politically friendly appointed bureaucrats to interpret the laws, codify them and enforce them!

Congress then comes back to it's constituency and disavows all knowledge that what is taking place was their intention! This is how an Imperial Presidency is made!

This is what Speaker Pelosi meant when she said that she would not know what was in the Health Care Bill until after it was passed!

Impeach Don't Wait| 4.22.11 @ 4:05PM

Somewhere in all that there MUST be at least one of probably many ways to prove unconstitutionally. I'm thinkin' Obamacare is unconstitutional in so many areas that if the Supreme Court doesn't reject it, at worst it should be tied up in court for years working out each point one-by-one.

Michael Tomlinson| 4.23.11 @ 12:29AM

Sadly, while there may be many reason's to impeach Obama it is a non-issue the Democrats control the Senate and will do absolutely nothing.

ENOUGH ROPE| 4.22.11 @ 11:07PM

Obama’s puppet masters must be very happy with their SMILING SLEEPER AGENT, SMILING MARXIST THUG, SMILING LIAR, and SMILING SABOTEUR who is destroying the U.S. Dollar and the U.S. economy.

Occam's Tool| 4.22.11 @ 11:27PM

I worked as a senior psychiatric consultant in the New Zealand Health Care System, which closely patterned its acquisition of new technology on NICE's views....it was a *&^%$ nightmare from hell.

Alan Brooks| 4.23.11 @ 11:04PM

"Well,if the IPAB ever dares to presume to stick its reactionary neo-nazi nose into my life and try to force its will on me,they are going to find out the acronym stands for I Pitch A Bitch.."

Bitch? you mean Palin?

Jay Dee| 4.24.11 @ 6:41PM

Cute Alan - while you are at it, please make a derogatory remark about Trig too so we can all have a good chuckle.

Alan Brooks| 4.24.11 @ 8:10PM

What else do you expect? I have nothing intelligent to offer. I support obama in all he does because he is a god.

Alan Brooks| 4.24.11 @ 11:39PM

Okay, Clint, you win. I will vote for Palin. But only because she is a woman!

Dee See| 4.22.11 @ 6:50AM

Fine article.

BTW, any bets on who's sterilization and worse
'stealth' program is at work behind the awesome
Fukishima world radiation cover-up?

And all this as the culprits behind the design
flaws, GE, post record breaking untaxed profits,
and CEO Jeff I-Melt-down isn't even confronted
by the -owned- media.

NedB| 4.22.11 @ 7:55AM

Umm, that design was drawn up almost 50 years ago and is obsolete. Imelt was just starting elementary school back then.

Not that I'm defending the guy. I just prefer to roast him over hot coals of facts, not suppositions. :)

I understand the Japanese were going to phase them out in the next few years.

As to the radiation? I would suggest this is more a matter of face then anything else. Doesn't make it right of course.

Dustoff| 4.22.11 @ 9:19AM

Go away KLOWN!

Carol| 4.22.11 @ 7:48AM

Anybody GOP candidate should use this disgusting panel in their campaign to show the difference between progressives and conservatives: Progressives are evil and conservatives have compassion.

I can just imagine that types of people that will sit on Obama's handpicked panel:

Someone high up on from the National Black Panthers.

Someone high up from the SEIU.

Someone high up from the AFL-CIO.

Someone high up from the NAACP.

You get my point. I have a feeling many on that board will be anti-white.

Regardless - those will be people who stand between you or your loved ones and evil.

I miss my parents dearly but glad that will never have to face that.

Hopefully Obama will be neutered next year and we can undo his pro-death legislation.

Melvin| 4.22.11 @ 7:59AM

Damn you government bureaucrats, I don't need advice on when I should die. You don't know me, you never have met me, but you hold my life in your hands.
You have the power of life and death over me. You base my life on my economical contribution to society based on my age, as if we humans now come with an expiration date dictated by some 15 people who have taken over the roll of God.
You can't look into my eyes and personally tell me, "Sorry Melvin the treatment is just too expensive. The savings would be better served on someone younger." Someone younger, hmm, the government would rather spend money on some 20 something gang banger who has murdered and wounded scores of fellow humans.
When my time comes, I'll be the one to decide. I hope it will be quick, but allow me one final reflection upon my life. I do not want to burden my family or the system. I do not want to lay up in some medical facility with tubes and wires sticking out of me, making me less than human.
I just want to go home, be with my family, have my favorite buddy,"Weiner the wonder dog" laying at the foot of the bed, kiss by beloved wife and children, and grand children, and feel the sun upon my face one last time.
"President Obama, you and your damn inhuman abomination that you have created won't chose for me, that final act of dignity belongs to me, and me alone, you best leave me the hell alone, because I might be old, and broken, but damn you, I'll still have one last bit of energy to fight you."

Teaghan| 4.22.11 @ 12:00PM

You made me cry Melvin. really~

Margo| 4.22.11 @ 12:01PM

Melvin...your comment was "spot on" and touched my heart.

jothepro| 4.22.11 @ 3:30PM

Melvin,
You made my miserable day a bright and wonderous day. Thank You !!!!!!!!!!!

The Bruce| 4.22.11 @ 11:53PM

/RaisesGlassToMelvin :)

Mimi| 4.23.11 @ 9:25AM

What is this WORLD coming to ? These People that think this stuff UP for us have GOT to be PLUCKED out from the ROOTS and thoroughly DESTROYED and gone from our mist. This is truly going BAD.... Melvin....I agree with you wholeheartedly....Keep fighting.....every last one of us is in danger....so goes our LIBERTY so goes our LIFE! ! !

Ken (Old Texican)| 4.22.11 @ 8:01AM

I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you.....die.

Michael Tomlinson| 4.22.11 @ 8:17AM

That could be Obama's 2012 campaign slogan.

Occam's Tool| 4.22.11 @ 11:29PM

Dear Ken:

under the NO Bullshit file:

when the District Health Board I worked for in New Zealand FINALLY replaced its CT machine, the administrators were asked where the old one would go.

"Oh, to a third world country or a veterinarian hospital."

That CT scanner had been the frontline equipment for the Health Board 1 week earlier. Nuff said. Feds out of Medicine.

Dee See| 4.22.11 @ 8:02AM

I-Melt-down is a shameless Globalist sellout artist in his
own right.

Putting that aside, he, at this moment
in time, is GE ---and therefore should be called
on the carpet, to say the least, for this disaster.

We all know GE's record with enabling the Soviets
back in the days of collectivization (20 MILLION
exterminated) ---and those nifty 5 Year plans.

And their long involvement with the RED China
economic TREASON op. is ON RECORD.
They are currently uilding 'dirty' coal power
plants across that country.

Why are these people walking free?

WHY????

----Find out why.

HUAC meets NUREMBERG 2012.

JimH| 4.22.11 @ 8:05AM

On the other hand this may be part of the Obama plan to keep Social Security and Medicare solvent. See Chris Buckley’s Boomsday. It’s hard to write satire these days when reality strains credulity.

Michael Tomlinson| 4.22.11 @ 8:20AM

Wasn't that what he was saying in his boring Georgetown speech? I wonder if Biden might be eligble for a death panel considering he fell asleep on Obama.

Michael Tomlinson| 4.22.11 @ 8:14AM

And Obama had the temerity to attack Paul Ryan and infer he was the enemy of the sick and elderly. The Democrat party is a neo-fascist party bent on destroying America and replacing it with a vile and abominable parody of itself – the Obamanation.

This is why Mitch Daniels (who would make an excellent President in many ways) was wrong to call for a truce on social issues. There can be no truce with a regime or its creature (the Federal bureaucracy) bent on destroying the most fundamental right of its citizens -- life.

Teaghan| 4.22.11 @ 12:02PM

The cat was out of the bag with Rowe v Wade.

idalily| 4.22.11 @ 3:48PM

Gotta disagree. Daniels was not wrong. Obama is ONE Supreme Court Justice away from annihilating the United States Constitution. ONE SCOTUS JUDGE from the Conservative side replaced by a liberal one, and we are toast. Please, please, please, we can't afford to turn off the Indies. We NEED them to defeat Obama. Without a truce on social issues, we lose the Indie vote and Obama wins a second term. If Daniels ends up the R nominee, vote for him. Or Ryan. Or Chris Christie, whoever is NOT Obama.

MOS was 71331| 4.22.11 @ 3:59PM

Amen.

I Survived Arlen Specter| 4.22.11 @ 8:20PM

I call b.s. Idalily. When you compromise with those doing evil you not only lose, but you're aiding & abetting evil. In regards to defeating Barack Hussein Obama, how about putting more faith in God instead of unpredictable independent voters. If it is God's will for BHO to be defeated in 2012 it will happen irregardless how the independents vote. If it's not God's will that BHO is defeated in 2012, again, it won't make a difference how the independents vote. Daniels is DEAD wrong. Trust God & His wisdom, not the "wisdom" of independent voters or The Stupid Party. They will betray you every time. God is faithful to all who put their faith in Him instead of making truces on evils like abortion on demand. Don't look for God to bless a nation whose Federal Gov't uses taxpayer dollars to fund abortion providers like Planned Infanticide. Without God this nation is lost, period! Take care Idalily, Happy Easter, & God bless you!

Michael Tomlinson| 4.23.11 @ 12:35AM

I agree, but his make the truce announcement undermined him as a Presidential contender. I think the majority of conservatives agree there is a need to prioritize issues -- starting with the repeal of Obamacare and working through a long list of things that need to be reversed, but there is no need to make a deal with the homosexual lobby or pro-abortion fanatics to win the White House.

I always vote a straight Republican ticket even when I'm not comfortable with a candidate ('92, 96 & 2008). To date the Democrats who have been elected, at all levels, are worse than expected.

BD57| 4.24.11 @ 12:01PM

Agree Obama must be defeated.

Daniels has a point.

The electorate is fickle - what it cares about changes from one election cycle to the next.

More to the point - and this is human nature, it's not going to change - the electorate is SELFISH.

Rightly or wrongly, A LOT of voters - I'd say the overwhelming majority of the so-called "independents" - consider social issues "luxury items" they can do without when their personal economy isn't humming. Again, first & foremost, IT IS ABOUT THEM.

And here's the problem with Daniels' point.

There's no "truce" offer from the Left. Oh, they'll be happy to see social conservatives quit the field, but they're not going to reciprocate; they'll accept the social conservatives surrender, but they're not about to negotiate "peace."

Daniels caught grief for his "truce" talk because, no matter what his intentions may have been, social conservatives properly understood him to be saying "Now isn't a good time for your social issues - - - will you people just shut up already?"

Occam's Tool| 4.22.11 @ 11:30PM

True.

Becky| 4.22.11 @ 8:33AM

Obama in wonderland, using words to confuse.

I believe the historic social contract between the government and citizens has been the Constitution, and the concept of limited government. The last hundred years has been a perversion of that contract, and it is the reason behind the increased tension between government and citizen, citizen and citizen, and even government and government.

We are at a point when we need good angels, and I wonder how many average citizens can navigate the verbal manipulation of what they are being told? I have a gut feeling the just of support for Obamacare among the masses is that he is a good person. So is Paul Ryan, but that is not what we are hearing.

I ask, would you rather have 15 non elected and accountable people choosen by George Bush to manage your health care from Washington, or your elected representatives from your state? That is the simple starting point of the discussion. Obama may want to, but will probably not be president for life. And he's had some poor choices not just in basketball brackets, but in filling positions.

Michael Tomlinson| 4.22.11 @ 8:52AM

What's George Bush got to do with Obamacare? That doesn't even make sense. Since George Bush wanted to reform Social Security using free-market ideas I'm betting he's more sympathetic with Paul Ryan than Barack Obama and his death panels.

By the way the masses don't support Obamacare they wanted it repealed and more people are learning he's not a good person just a petty and mean-spirited egotist.

Dan Hirsch| 4.22.11 @ 10:29AM

Becky;

DO NOT tell American citizens that 'it's too complicated for you to understand'. Maybe it's too complicated for you, but it's not too complicated for me and my fellow citizens.

The government is NOT smarter than the average American citizen. Anyone who thinks so has obviously had too much "self-esteem" training.

And your thinking that Obama may be president for life shows that you have no concept of the fundamental rule of our country, the US Constitution.

Your ignorance is monumental and embarrassing, be still! Go read the Constitution and find out what rights and responsibilities you actually have!

BTW, you do not have a right to free healthcare because slavery and theft are both unlawful and unconstitutional.

"Slavery" you might ask: well what is it when one citizen claims to have a right to the work and property of another citizen. Or why do you have a "right" to the work of a doctor or a hospital. You don't. You should pay for taking care of yourself. Or should we feed you and house you too? That's not America.

Please tell me you are just confused, please. Otherwise what are you up to?

Nolite me conculcare!!!

Ray| 4.22.11 @ 3:39PM

"I ask, would you rather have 15 non elected and accountable people choosen by George Bush to manage your health care from Washington, or your elected representatives from your state? "

Nether. Those decisions, that "management," should only be between myself, my family, and my doctor. No one else can, or should, be a part of that decision making process. After all, I don't "manage" the health care of those officials, so why should they be allowed to "manage" mine?

Occam's Tool| 4.22.11 @ 11:32PM

I don't want ANY politician deciding my health care. Period. End of story.

da monk| 4.23.11 @ 9:35AM

And Occam, what's your opinion on the government telling women what to do concerning their bodies? i.e. Freedom of Choice

Occam's Tool| 4.24.11 @ 9:51PM

I don't support the murder of children, Monk. That is a different issue from Death panels. Oh, and Monk, someone has to wipe your rear for you when you hit the Nursing Home. No kids, no hands.

benny havens| 4.22.11 @ 8:36AM

If Mitch Daniels or any other Republican calls for a “truce”, they are not fit to run against the empty suit liar.

John G.| 4.22.11 @ 10:35AM

In this interview (part 4 of 5); Mitch Daniels provides a more indepth explanation of his "truce".
http://tv.nationalreview.com/u.....VmZWMyYjQ=
(part 4 of 5),

Watch the whole thing. Its very interesting.

Claire Solt| 4.22.11 @ 10:47AM

I will not vote for anyone who claims to know the answer to this controversy of O being a natural born citizen. Although M Bachmann claims to be a constitutionalist, she takes his word on this. No one should be in the Oval who does not base decisions on the facts, and too many facts are in dispute on this. No president should so blythely dismiss a constitutional provision and obvious concern of the American people. Give me someone who challenges the limitation of the power of the purse of the HR as unconstitutional, not someone who whines about having her hands tied by a bogus concept of mandatory spending.

VBMax| 4.22.11 @ 8:51AM

It's the "useless eaters" doctrine all over again. We know how well that turned out.

Nightmare on Obama Street| 4.22.11 @ 9:00AM

Past a certain age old people have outlived their usefulness to the State and are nothing more than a drain of precious resources. The only way we can have a viable government run healthcare system is not to waste money on the old, the infirm, and the mentally defective. Any citizen who will not support this system will be declared an enemy of the state and will be dealt with accordingly. We should all be grateful to President Obama and the brave democrats who have had the vision and courage to finally bring this much needed improvement to our medical system. We should also be thankful that we have a media intelligent enough to support the wonderful efforts of Obama and the Democrats throughout the ordeal of overcoming the opposition from the reactionary enemies on the right in order to make this bold and visionary change to the healthcare system a reality.

Dan Hirsch| 4.22.11 @ 10:32AM

Nightmare;

You are in the wrong country. In the US, the government is constitutionally by the consent of the governed. The State does not own the services of doctors and hospitals. The State as you envision it is a communist entity. Citizens exist for the benefit of the state only in totalitarian states. Go there!

Dope!

Curtis Rasmussen| 4.22.11 @ 10:59AM

Please read it again. I see sarcasm.

He envisions a socialist state hiding behind our constitutional republic, where nameless bureaucrats make life and death decisions about your life and there may be very little you can do about it, even if you could pay for the treatment that you need to live a little longer.

MOS was 71331| 4.22.11 @ 3:46PM

I agree with Curt Rasmussen. Nightmare's description of 0bama's and the Democrats' intentions is accurate, and so horrible that N's apparent praise can only be meant sarcastically.

Nightmare on Obama Street| 4.22.11 @ 5:41PM

Exactly. In order to know and defeat the enemy you must first learn to think like them and what I wrote is exactly how they justify to themselves what they are trying to ram down our throats. What they are doing is eerily similar to what the Nazis did in the 1930's when they would euthanize or sterilize anyone they considered defective or useless to the state. What is so inconceivable is that something so inhuman and cruel has actually been passed into law in the United States of America. We are in at war with the most dangerous foe our Republic has ever faced - A Dictatorial Marxist President and his communist dominated democrat party.

To call someone who would subscribe to my original post as a "dope" while accurate, also dangerously underestimates the cunning and the ruthlessness of these radicals.

Occam's Tool| 4.22.11 @ 11:33PM

I see sarcasm---he's comparing the Obama healthcare system (correctly) to the Nazi views on the infirm.

Claire Solt| 4.22.11 @ 10:38AM

What a joke. Omacare is just a reactionary collusion to protect stakeholders from competition of the emerging custom medicine of genetic counselling and stem cell therapies. What was SEIU at the WH to protect? Not the public but the unionized nursing home workers and the flagrant abuse of home health care. Politics only pollutes science and Obama is the worst practioner of favoritism and patronage I have ever seen. That's what we will get from this board, not efficiency.

Teaghan| 4.22.11 @ 12:10PM

How about you be the first Nightmare to step up to the death plate and lessen the drain on our "precious resources". Get lost please.

VBMax| 4.22.11 @ 12:40PM

This has got to be a satire...

Anthony| 4.22.11 @ 9:15AM

I believe sister Sarah warned us of this many months ago. The LSM laughed and ridiculed, the conservative pundits tisked and tisked about this vacuous woman.
Seems this remarkable woman can see more than just Russia from her doorstep.

Melvin| 4.22.11 @ 9:32AM

Hmm Anthony when Sarah said she could see Russia from her doorstep which direction was she looking? She couldn't have been looking South to the lower 48.

Claire Solt| 4.22.11 @ 10:40AM

She was saying that the gov of Alaska has to deal with neighboring countries, a concept that was completely lost on the parochial press of NYC.

Anthony| 4.22.11 @ 12:46PM

Melvin. Hmmmm good point.

Anthony| 4.22.11 @ 4:10PM

P.S. Melvin, I missed your earlier and most poignant post. Not only was it moving, it was the most eloquent thing I've read in months.
You sir are an American treasure!!!

Melvin| 4.22.11 @ 6:22PM

Anthony, thank you for your kind thoughts. I am humbled.

Ray| 4.22.11 @ 3:44PM

Let's hope she wasn't looking South, for, if she had been, all she could have seen was the Pacific Ocean. Alaska is the most extreme western State sill connected to the North American Continent.

MOS was 71331| 4.22.11 @ 3:56PM

Sarah Palin never said anything about being able to see Russia from her house. Tina Fey said that when she impersonated Sarah Palin on SNL. (By the way, you can see Russia from Shemya Island, which is part of Alaska. That's why we put the Cobra Dane radar there.)

Anthony| 4.22.11 @ 4:17PM

MOS, I hope you realize I was being factitious.

Rick Z| 4.23.11 @ 12:03PM

@ Mel-ole-buddy :

You are quoting Tina Fey on her SNL skit.

Tina said those words -- Sarah never did.

Are you next going to tell us that George Washington rode to his second inaugural in Air Force 1 ?

bill glass| 4.22.11 @ 12:09PM

I was waiting for her to get some of the credit she rightfully deserves. What the American people need are voices from people like Sarah Palin who see things for what they are and who are not afraid to speak up.

Bill Diebold| 4.22.11 @ 10:34AM

...while the community organizer in chief, brak husein olinsky is an abject failure as potus, he's the shining savior to his liberal democrat sock puppets in his, their glee for murder at both ends of the human experience, murdering the unborn innocents and the elderly, infirm, unable to defend themselves from these savages. This sewage should not be allowed to even sit at the table with human beings, but rather be chained up in the backyard like the junk yard dogs they are.
(I apologize to all the junk yards in the US I may have demeaned)
It would be hard to concieve of a congressional or presidential candidate in 2012 election season get elected and be part of the same mind set as these animals be they republican or democrat.
Any republican who would compromise with these loons is no different or better than they are and should be seen for what they are, dangerous.

MOS was 71331| 4.22.11 @ 3:58PM

Don't hold back, Bill. Tell us how you really feel. By the way, I agree with you completely.

the refudiator| 4.22.11 @ 10:45AM

Here is where I see things going with Medicare. It can't continue as is because it'll consume too much of the budget unless yoy jack taxes up. So, you either get rid of it or you limit it. I think they should get rid of it but they won't. So it will be limited. Limited means, it will only offer certain services. Anything above & beyond that, you'll have to pay for yourself.

Claire Solt| 4.22.11 @ 10:54AM

People need to understand that government health care schemes fail because they are wage and price control schemes and they never work. Rising health care costs are actually a predictable product of this wrongheaded approach and cannot be controlled by regulations that just distort the market. If Medicare cannot even prevent its billing system from being bilked by the maffia, no way they can prevent 300 million
Americans from getting the health care they want and need. No one has ever tried to serve anyting like that number of customers well, and it will not begin now.

Rep. Candidate 2012| 4.22.11 @ 11:06AM

"If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it." Duh.

Alan Brooks| 4.22.11 @ 11:16AM

India's financial problems are more severe:
Termites eat millions of Indian rupees in bank
LUCKNOW, India – It was an all you can eat buffet at the bank.
An army of termites munched through 10 million rupees ($222,000) in currency notes stored in a steel chest at a bank, police in northern India said Friday. The bank manager discovered the damage when he opened the reinforced room in an old bank building on Wednesday, police officer Navneet Rana told The Associated Press.
"It's a matter of investigation how termites attacked bundles of currency notes stacked in a steel chest," he said. The money was put in the chest in January.
The termites had damaged bank furniture and documents in the past.
The police have registered a case of negligence against bank officials in Barabanki, a town 20 miles (30 kilometers) southwest of Lucknow, the Uttar Pradesh state capital. In India, police register a case before opening an investigation."

Steve A| 4.22.11 @ 11:56AM

That steel chest is the same one that used to hold all of Obama's college transcripts, medical records & birth cert. Termites got em.

Dixie Pixie| 4.22.11 @ 4:47PM

And the termites got the Social Securities IOU's too.
So the Government owes you nothing due to insect damage!!!!

Alan Brooks| 4.22.11 @ 6:38PM

Dix,
Granny 'n' Gramps will have to eat catfood.
"Kibbles and bits
kibbles and bits"

Dixie Pixie| 4.22.11 @ 9:17PM

Greetings Alan
The Social Security pension funds were looted by the politicians of both parties for decades.
This year the SS Ponzi scam ran out when income equaled outgo.
Next year it will be bankrupt.

This is the point where usually the scam perpetrators take what is left of the money and disappear leaving a hollow shell and busted members.
If you are relying on Social Security you will be lucky to afford cat-food or a cat.

May I suggest buying those bird nets the Italian use in making Bird Drop Soup.
Crow is not that bad as I have eaten many a dish on this website.

Alan Brooks| 4.24.11 @ 8:12PM

I can't think of anything else to post, I'm beat, I serviced 15 men last night, my jaws are sore and I can't sit down.

Yosemeti Sam| 4.22.11 @ 11:21AM

Love the photo - " All The Presidents' Men".

Death Valley Uncle| 4.22.11 @ 1:23PM

Hate the photo - "Somebody, anybody, how about a courtesy flush?"

Notary Sojac| 4.22.11 @ 12:01PM

The elderly are entitled to spend their own money on all the health care they want, and God bless 'em.

Once they burn through that first $60-$80 thousand, they have gotten back everything they paid into Medicare.

At that point, they need to pay their own way, rather than using the confiscated income of their kids and grandkids.

Occam's Tool| 4.22.11 @ 11:40PM

Actually, under our system, the elderly are NOT allowed to pay for their health care with their own money any way they want. Any physician who opts out of Medicare to treat a patient covered by Medicare in a fashion not Medicare approved and paid for loses the right to treat other Medicare patients for two years. Bet you didn't know that. Look it up.

The refudiator| 4.23.11 @ 1:52AM

you are right. but, i expect his will change, soon.

Wayne | 4.23.11 @ 1:07PM

You obviously don't understand insurance do you. My mother is 92 and has lived a very healthy life. Now when she is more likely to need medical care, she has a president who does not value her life. She is not "worthy" to have surgery or special care, in his mind because she is just a "typical white woman". See how that works.

Meanwhile this same president will give the care otherwise given to her to aliens here illegally. Ones that never paid a penny in medicare or social security.

Pete| 4.22.11 @ 12:37PM

Naturally, they will try to kill of the old, but I would bet your voter status (and race) factors into care decision as well. Kind of like how they decided on which GM dealers to shut down. Reminds me of a relative who taught in inner-city Chicago. She wasn't getting a paycheck and went to see the folks who controlled such things. They asked for her union card...she didn't have one, and thus they weren't able to "find" her paycheck. Once she got her card, they magically found it. That's how these people operate...got to be in the club.

Jack London| 4.22.11 @ 1:56PM

You people are stupid enough to think a majority of Americans want to abolish Medicare. If you think Obamacare is unpopular, just look at how well Ryan's voucher system is playing out in popularity.

You people are also stupid enough to think it's not worth investing in what works in medicine and what doesn't.

George S| 4.22.11 @ 3:40PM

Hi Jack, been a while... mental acuity has nothing to do with this. It is the mother of all false premises to assume that government will "invest" in what works as opposed to what does not. Only the free market can do that as capital is put at risk. Government, on the other hand, does not risk capital -- it confiscates it. There is simply no incentive for them to engage in the endeavor as to what will bring a return.

Government will simply allocate resources to where it benefits them politically. Remember the stimulus, investments in the "economy"? We saw how that worked. Money was funneled to state governments to continue paying wage and benefits to state employees rather than infrastructure and other shovel ready projects. That money, in turn, found its way back to Democrat campaign coffers, thus shielding the cash flow to Democrats from a bad economy.

What makes anyone think that government won't direct resources slated towards medical care to the labor unions representing all those SEIU members who will be hired by the boat load once ObamaCare kicks in? That is what's happening in Britain (a representative of the nurse's union went on record saying their function is to assure the flow of money into the system, not to treat patients).

We will all learn the hard way that the promises of utopia do not apply to us. The purpose of the death panels is not to kill citizens but to direct money where it best suits the viability of the system. Simply put, the bureaucracy comes first. The rest of us can go to hell.

Jack London| 4.22.11 @ 5:51PM

I'll say this for you George - you're not afraid to speak from a position of utter ignorance.

I take it you don't know the NIH alone currently spends about $30 billion a year on medical research, both clinical and basic, and our government as a whole accounts for about 40% of all medical research. Further, over the last 20 years or so there has been growing emphasis on commercialization of research by government, both here and abroad.

But I take it that you'd abort all the federally funded clinical trials tomorrow not on health needs but because the answer may not raise a buck for companies.

I take it you don't know that Medicare pays for the majority of hospital physician training, either.

As for the stimulus - it was far too small to make a great impact on the chronic underinvestment in our infrastructure.

As for Britain - as far as I'm aware the government there is trying to privatize their system but they didn't have that many nurses and other healthcare workers per head anyway as they don't spend as much per head/GDP on health as France, Germany etc and certainly not as much as we do (for much less impact).

Impeach Don't Wait| 4.22.11 @ 9:50PM

"I take it you don't know the NIH alone currently spends about $30 billion a year on medical research, both clinical and basic, and our government as a whole accounts for about 40% of all medical research."

Yeah. For now. Once the government has control of the whole pie, then when the big economic squeeze comes and they need money for other things, watch those allotments for research start shrinking, just like Medicare payments to providers are being reduced. Sorry but I just don't trust the government holding the whole ball of wax.

Wayne | 4.23.11 @ 1:21PM

Or any of that ball of wax. I would question whether any of that 30 billion does any good whatsoever. We should not be borrowing money to pay for research. Let the private sector do the research and let the market place decide which research is actually valuable.
So let people be medical consumers and let these consumers make the choices and evaluate the costs of treatment. Choices bring down prices in a free society.

Occam's Tool| 4.24.11 @ 9:54PM

Actually, Jack, remove GSW and excessive car crashes from the equation and our health outcomes are MUCH superior to Britain's.

Ray| 4.22.11 @ 3:48PM

"You people are also stupid enough to think it's not worth investing in what works in medicine and what doesn't."

Who's stupid enough to trust political appointees in questions of individual health care requirements and effectiveness? Not me, that's for sure!

Occam's Tool| 4.22.11 @ 11:36PM

Government knows NOTHING about proper investment in health care, unless whipped into shape by market forces. Unlike you, Jack, in my day to day life my patients' lives depend on my mastery of bureaucratic intrigue to get care for my patients.

Wayne | 4.23.11 @ 1:10PM

Of course Obama wants to use medicare as a tool for controlling people. It is how communism works.

cicero| 4.22.11 @ 2:13PM

We seem to be argueing about which of the plans - Obama's or Ryan's - is the least worste. Seems to me that we should try to look for a market solution before we turn it over to any of the beaurocratic scheme makers. For instance, once I was elegible for social security, it was mandated that I sign up for Medicare. Since I only had to sign up for one of the parts, and they gave me a choice, I signed up for the hospitalization. As I was, and am, still working in my own business, and am covered by my office group medical plan, I really don't need Medicare. I was surprised to learn that, even though I have private hospitalization, Medicare gratuitously makes itself the primary coverage. This does not lower my private coverage premium. Why not let my carrier be primary? Seems to me that that would save Medicare a whole bunch of money.
I can't wait for Ryan's plan to kick in. He will give all of Medicare types $1,500.00 toward a private plan. Guess how much the minimal private plan will then cost ? $1,500.00! Why not just do away with all of the mandates that the governments place in policies, and let me buy the covereage that I want. I don't need AIDS coverage; nor maternity, chiropractic, smoke therapy, psychiatric (well, my wife thinks I should keep that one), etc. One size rarely fits all.
The problem is that government, once it gets its hands on something, really believes that it has to do something.
I am capable of making my own decisions, and running my own life. For those who are not, let them sign up for the tender mercies of the government.

Occam's Tool| 4.22.11 @ 11:36PM

This is Ted Kennedy;s fault, as is HIPAA.

Occam's Tool| 4.22.11 @ 11:37PM

Obviously, "Kennedy's. Sorry."

Occam's Tool| 4.22.11 @ 11:38PM

Your freedom of choice was taken away, sir. That is more important to these scum than cost savings.

Jay Dee| 4.24.11 @ 7:00PM

Ryan's plan is to be means tested and the vouchers range from $8,000 to $15,000.

Cicero if you are still working you must not be making enough to disqualify yourself from receiving Social Security. If you earn more then you can currently skip SS and thusly, Medicare and rely on your wonder group insurance.

Oldefarte| 4.22.11 @ 3:36PM

I've redundantly stated this so many times, but I'll do so again here. The one/sole/only purpose of Obama/Democrats' healthcare legislation was/is/forever will be WELFARE! Their intent is to REPLACE Medicare [where its recipients have to PAY FOR their insurance benefits through payroll deduction throughout their lifetimes of work; and where benefits are not paid until the recipients reach the age of 65] with their WELFARECARE [where any/all/everyone will become eligible at their present age for coverage; and where most of the 30 million UNINSUREDS as defined by Obama/Democrats are mostly so uninsured due to their status as financial indigents without the monetary means to PAY FOR their own personal health insurance benefit provided by the government and for which TAXPAYERS will be futuristically called upon to fund/pay for same through their raised taxiation]!!!!!!!!!

NJK| 4.22.11 @ 5:46PM

American Thinker has a very good article about the "Commerce Clause" and Senator Rand Paul today. This is probably the most un-American pieces of legislation ever to be thrown at American Citizens. We aren't going to stand for this. They don't get to decide this, these mere human beings. For the first time in my life, I wish Air Force One would cr..... Ok I won't finish. I'll leave it to you to figure out what I'm thinking. I feel no remorse, just like Soetoro.
The guy's a textbook psychopath. http://www.americanthinker.com.....to_do.html

Dixie Pixie| 4.22.11 @ 6:28PM

Four years ago, before Obama was even on the radar screen, I kept telling everyone who would listen that when the Federal Government has control of your Healthcare, then the Government has the "Right" to tell you how to live and when to die.

Governmental control is imposed for cost control as every dollar spent on ObamaCare is a dollar taken away from other agencies.
The less money spent on ObamaCare is the more money the politicians can spend on their supporters.
Of course there are death panels despite Obama's direct denial before Congress.

When has the Federal Government ever hesitated to kill people to keep "its" money.
Of course the elderly will die of neglect if it is cost-effective to the government.
Obama has already stated that is the goal of ObamaCare.
What did you think Obama's "Little White Pill" is for.

cuban pete| 4.23.11 @ 2:19PM

Black capsule. It worked for Hitler and Eve Braun.

PaulD| 4.22.11 @ 6:50PM

Damn Obama!

Nite| 4.22.11 @ 9:39PM

Yes, the IMAB is nothing more than Death Panels. If you disagree, then by all means look up the appointees and what they are planning. It will open your eyes. They all favor the British way of healthcare, rationing etc. Just like the crackpot Dr. Daniel Berwick. They do NOT report to Congress, just Obama. That should scare the daylights out of everyone that is 65 are over. It does me. These unelected unaccountable appointees need to be thrown out along with Dr. Berwick. Seniors need to realize that what the Democrats and Obama are planning for us will take place immediately and will be far worse than the proposal of Paul Ryan.

Dee See| 4.23.11 @ 12:27AM

One solution to ALLLL the gripes above.

HUAC meets NUREMBERG 2012.

NO KIDDING

pilgrim| 4.23.11 @ 1:55AM

To pay or not to pay..........

john dubose| 4.23.11 @ 12:51PM

When a million destitute 90 year olds need very expensive treatments, someone has to tell their famileis NO or else we go very broke very fast. Question is.. Who has to be the bad guy or go do we go broke.

Wayne | 4.23.11 @ 1:12PM

So you are saying my 92 year old mother would cause us to go broke, because she has taken good care of herself all these years? Do you realize just how evil your perspective is?

axbucxdu| 4.23.11 @ 1:56PM

Axelrod's direction less and exhausted stare in the photo somberly sums it all up for the ideas that he and his boss represent. Doesn't look like a guy that believes the words being spouted from the empty suits around him.

Jay Dee| 4.24.11 @ 7:06PM

Axelrod is worried about his epileptic daughter who has uncontrollable seizures. What happens to her when he can't defend her before the IPAD Board?

axbucxdu| 4.25.11 @ 1:19PM

The Soviets always made special exceptions to their rules when it came to Politburo members. I don't know how true it is, but I once read that it had something to do with some pigs being more equal than others...I also note that the picture has been changed...LOL...

Gordon W.| 4.23.11 @ 5:07PM

Wait there is a panel that says because it is not cost effective to keep me alive, they will cut off my health care. And that health care would not be provided to me without the program set out by the government which also provides the panel.

Looks like I should do what all good conservatives talk about, being self sufficient so that when my government hand outs don't provide any more, I can provide for my self. Or, without the plan, I could just keel over and die (self imposed death panel).

Mister| 4.23.11 @ 11:45PM

hope members of the death panel are all seniors; they know what they are talking about.

martin j smith| 4.24.11 @ 8:38AM

This issue of "Death Panels" is as others have said an excellent issue for families to be educated about--and naturally for the coming BIG 2012 election.

I am one however who " cuts to the chase" and in my view, as in 2010 the election should be ABOUT OBAMA AND HIS SOCIALIST AGENDA
( and that of the Socialist Party"s ). YES OR NO.
It should be put to the voter--do you want Socialist because that will mean DEATH PANELS
or do you want the RIGHT TO CHOOSE ? Ironically it would government control versus choice isn't that funny ?

Hunthorse| 4.24.11 @ 12:09PM

The sooner a non contributing individual dies the the less money will be expened in Medicare and Social Security. This death panel will be able to control the lives of non contributing medicaid individuals similarily.

These dreadful people of the mulatto's choosing are serious, very serious. To them we don't need non contributing citizens. Soooo let them die.

K| 4.25.11 @ 4:09AM

Not that I have any confidence in this panel, but people will continue to have the choice to pay for their own health care. Medications are expensive, treatments are expensive, and some treatments are really expensive without a high success rate. We don't have unlimited resources and we all pay for those on medicare and medicaid. How much are we willing to pay for social security? 25% of our paychecks like in France? 50%? If you don't like socialized medicine then opt-out. Why do older people think that they should have unlimited access to health care no matter what it costs? With all the new technology and expensive medicines there will eventually have to be a ceiling where we stop asking americans as a group to pay for one individuals health care. I think the focus should be on lowering prices because pharmaceutical companies are making huge profits. NICE in the UK is not great but the drug companies provide some medicines to the UK at a steeply reduced rate, while still making a profit, because of it. This shows it is possible for them to charge less.
We can all make the choice to save and pay for our own care, to buy drugs from other countries because they are cheaper, or fly to India for treatment or a procedure. If the American government was friendlier to humans and less to companies the ceiling would be higher. But it will still exists in the coming centuries. It will have to because we don't have unlimited resources.

Jack London| 4.25.11 @ 3:48PM

Not much point in posting reasonable comments like yours here I fear. What's extraordinary is that the loony tunes here are actually as socialist as can be - they want unlimited government money spent on Medicare regardless of evidence, and they support the fundamentally anti-capitalist position of the biggest buyer - the government - being unable to negotiate on drug prices. As that older lady said, '[government] Hands off my Medicare!'

Random Blowhard| 4.26.11 @ 6:49AM

The Obama administrations spend, print, bailout policies ensure everyone will receive death panels, via currency collapse and sovereign bankruptcy. But hey - Zimbabwe has cheap healthcare.

Death panels and economic collapse - Change your getting.

Mark| 4.26.11 @ 11:02AM

I swear. I wish the government would keep their noses out of Medicare. How can my parents expect to live a long fruitful life if the government continues to meddle with it. Until Obama came into office, Medicare was untouched by the federal gov't. Now that he's in office, all I've been hearing is how they're going to do that and that with Medicare.

I'll pray for them. That's what I'll do. I'll pray that the government takes their hands off Medicare so my parent's doctors can do their jobs without the federal government interfering.

shipley130| 4.27.11 @ 4:13PM

I want the US Supreme court to receive the same kind of rationing as I will get.

gbw| 5.16.11 @ 9:18PM

Oh, this must be that adult conversation Republicans keep saying they want. I was wondering when it was going to start.

Christian Louboutin | 6.23.11 @ 6:21AM

Contemplating the 2012 election that can already be seen looming on the distant horizon, the President's advisors were no doubt hoping that the "death panel" debate was… well… dead. But Obama himself inadvertently resurrected it when, in response to Republican budget proposals, he claimed that Medicare costs will be kept under control by the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).

CAROL HUSTED| 7.18.11 @ 3:54PM

this panel and obama BOTH SHOULD BE DONE AWAY WITH WHY KEEP TAKING FROM THE SENIORS,,TAKE AWAY FROM THE FREE LOADERS ON MEDIC AID WHO HAVE NEVER CONTRIBUTED TO THE SYSTEM

Creative Recreation | 8.10.11 @ 9:55PM

is good

John Mildfelt| 3.6.12 @ 2:02PM

We the people who vote these stupid ass wipes into office, should get a clue and vote them out. So who is really to blame.