Sarah Palin responds to critics who are "shocked" at Sarah Palin's use of the name "Death Panel".
My original comments concerned statements made by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a health policy advisor to President Obama and the brother of the President's chief of staff. Dr. Emanuel has written that some medical services should not be guaranteed to those "who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens....An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia." [10] Dr. Emanuel has also advocated basing medical decisions on a system which "produces a priority curve on which individuals aged between roughly 15 and 40 years get the most chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get chances that are attenuated."
Given the policy rules outlined in section 1233 in the ObamaCare proposal, calling the bureaucrats who govern "end-of-life" counseling a "Death Panel" is not out of line. Why? Because the 1233 panel will be required to provide financial incentives to the health-care providers to hold-down health care costs. As Palin observes, Ruben Diaz, a Democrat and a New York State Senator, says of section 1233:
It is egregious to consider that any senior citizen ... should be placed in a situation where he or she would feel pressured to save the government money by dying a little sooner
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