Sarah Palin writes:
First, ask yourself whether the government that brought us such “waste and inefficiency” and “unwarranted subsidies” in the first place can be believed when it says that this time it will get things right. (…)
Now look at one way Mr. Obama wants to eliminate inefficiency and waste: He’s asked Congress to create an Independent Medicare Advisory Council—an unelected, largely unaccountable group of experts charged with containing Medicare costs.
In an interview with the New York Times in April, the president suggested that such a group, working outside of “normal political channels,” should guide decisions regarding that “huge driver of cost . . . the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives . . .”
Given such statements, is it any wonder that many of the sick and elderly are concerned that the Democrats’ proposals will ultimately lead to rationing of their health care by—dare I say it—death panels?
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FLASHBACK: Tom Daschle, gone but not forgotten?
Dr. David Gratzer, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, notes that “much of the book is standard fare.” He worries, however, about Daschle’s vision of a bureaucratic “super board.” “Daschle envisions using public money to demand that doctors, clinics, and hospitals comply with the best practices set out by the all-powerful super board,” says Gratzer. “If his idea is implemented and it works, the very practice of American medicine would change. The doctor-patient relationship would become the doctor-patient-super board relationship.”
