Death Panels

[oselle]

Our own beloved Sarah Palin recently coined the term "Obama's death panel" to describe the (wholly fictitious) government bureau that would impose euthanasia upon the elderly and the handicapped and other "unproductive" members of society like her own dear little Down Syndrome baby Trig if we ever had any sort of national healthcare. Here is JUST the response that I've been waiting for:

"Don’t talk to me about death panels, Sarah Palin.

You, who so carelessly bolstered a lie about healthcare reform to score a cheap political point; you, the most craven of political opportunists, who fearmongers about some dystopian socialist/fascist fantasyland; you, who earlier this year were only too happy to accept free medical, dental and veterinary care from the U.S. military for Alaska’s remote villages; you, dear lady, are an idiot.

In your free market wonderland everyone somehow manages to get healthcare, even those who are poor or live in isolated areas, though the poor and isolated in your own state required assistance from the federal government.

And despite all of this, you appear blithely unaware that the free market healthcare system we have now does, indeed, have “death panels.” I’ve been part of a death panel conversation. I know about death panels.

You have no idea what it’s like to be called into a sterile conference room with a hospital administrator you’ve never met before and be told that your mother’s insurance policy will only pay for 30 days in ICU. You can't imagine what it's like to be advised that you need to “make some decisions,” like whether your mother should be released “HTD” which is hospital parlance for “home to die,” or if you want to pay out of pocket to keep her in the ICU another week. And when you ask how much that would cost you are given a number so impossibly large that you realize there really are no decisions to make. The decision has been made for you. "Living will" or no, it doesn't matter. The bank account and the insurance policy have trumped any legal document.

If this isn’t a “death panel” I don’t know what is.

So don’t talk to me about “death panels” you heartless, cruel, greedy sons of bitches, who are only too happy to keep the profits rolling in to the big insurance companies while you spout your mealy-mouthed bumper sticker slogans about the evils of socialism. You don't even know what socialism is. You don't know what government healthcare is. You have no fucking clue about anything except that you lost the last election and you're pissed off.

You are young. Your parents are still alive. You don’t know enough to take any of this seriously. It's all an exercise in political theater for you. But that will change. We all get older. The time will arrive, someday, when you are tasked with caring for someone you love who is seriously ill. You will be ushered in to that sterile hospital conference room with an administrator you do not know, where you are told to "make plans" for a day you never hoped to see. And then you will get your education.

If on that day you still think the healthcare system we have now is fabulous and worth lying, cheating and threatening people to maintain, I can only conclude that you lack even the tiniest grain of a soul."

From Southern Beale

Comments

[mara-snh.livejournal.com]

Breathtakingly brilliant! I will share this. It needs to go viral, don't you think?

I found Palin's "death panel" statement to be beyond obnoxious, but it pales in comparison with her statement a couple of days later that decried the screaming mobs at town hall meetings, as if she hadn't fan the flames.

I'm reading American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America by Chris Hedges. All of this crap is right out of the playbook. We need to get wise to what's going down.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I think it's gone viral. I've seen it on 3 blogs already.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

That was a thing of beauty to read. I can't figure out why more people haven't just said this over and over. Well, they probably have, only it's not on TV.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I guess when the insurance company kicks your loved one out of the ICU, it's not a "death panel" it's "free market competition" at its best. LOL!

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

This is such an important thing to get out. I've been absorbed in reading the comments to this!

[westmoon.livejournal.com]

Wow.

Says it all, really.

Lies and more lies

[llinos.livejournal.com]

Your posts are excellent! Well informed and well thought about. It is heartening to see that some (I hope most) Americans are seeing through this nonsense that there is something evil and Orwellian about National Health Care.

I don't see anyone screaming about the Socialist evils of public education, libraries, fire services or the police, so why this hysteria about giving everyone access to healthcare?

It's all just spin and propaganda!

In the UK we have something which I (and all my fellow Brits) appreciate perhaps as much as our National Health Service. That is our Press! The newspapers in Britain are fiercely independent and scream from the rooftops at any sign of injustice or unfairness dished out by Government – sometimes a little too much so.

Take for example the recent MP expenses scandal. The Daily Telegraph got hold of the information and published it – much to the Government's embarrassment and annoyance, but there was sod all they could do to stop it – thank goodness. Now they are being forced to clean up their act and woe betide any MP who gets caught with his or her snouts in the trough in the future.

The NHS similarly frequently comes in for a similar bashing. Yes, there are occasional mistakes, there are sometimes cutbacks – it happens. There is not a bottomless pit of money. Nevertheless, the principal is sound and works very well. It is based on medical need - not the ability to pay!

No one goes without medicine that they need – it is either a standard charge – about $10 or free.

No one goes without consultations – you have a GP who makes no direct charge and will always see you and even come to your house if it's urgent.

No one goes without surgery that they need. There can be waiting lists, but generally they are not too bad. If something is urgent it jumps the queue. In other words the waiting lists are dictated by need, not by ability to pay, even if you are paying.

To demonstrate – my husband needed an operation and as he was covered by private medical insurance through his job, opted to go privately. However, his operation was delayed by the surgeon because he had an NHS patient who need the surgery more urgently. The only preferential treatment my husband got was a private room in a posh hospital. The surgeon was the same. Like most, he divides his work between private and NHS.

The NHS is excellent! Ask anyone in the UK. Try to take it away from us and there would be rioting in the streets!

I have many first hand stories about the NHS – ask me anything you like. If it helps to dispel the lies and junk you are being fed at the moment, I am only too happy to oblige.

The scariest piece of propaganda has to be from The Investor's Business Daily, which wrote "The controlling of medical costs in countries such as Britain through rationing, and the health consequences thereof, are legendary. The stories of people dying on a waiting list or being denied altogether read like a horror script …"

SO, SO NOT TRUE!! But the veracity of their reporting is confirmed by this…

"People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the UK, where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless."

Would they? But Stephen Hawking IS BRITISH and was treated for his disability in the UK. He said in response, "I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS," he told The Guardian newspaper. "I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived."

Are they so stupid that because his voice synthesizer has an American accent, that he is an American? It beggars belief!

Re: Lies and more lies

[oselle.livejournal.com]

The Stephen Hawking thing was PURE COMEDY GOLD but alas, a lot of people here (people who frankly, probably don't even really know who Stephen Hawking is) will start parrotting that -- OMG the English would have killed Stephen Hawking!

Llinos, you and other people outside of the United States need to understand that over here, REALITY DOES NOT MATTER anymore. The FACT that Stephen Hawking is British and has not only survived but thrived due to the British healthcare system DOES NOT MATTER. This will become part of the American conservative collective consciousness along with other blathering idiocies like DEATH PANELS and WHERE'S THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE and DRILL BABY DRILL and God knows what else. I would say there must be an entire third of this country's population that has completely lost touch with anything close to reality. Probably about another ten percent has a nodding acquaintance with it at best. Our major media outlets are corporate controlled entities that do little or nothing to disseminate the truth because the ratings are better when they gin up these "controviersies" and because their multi-billionaire owners are personally well served by Republican policies.

It's important for people like you to tell your stories because the lies about England and other countries have become rooted in the American mind. IT DOES NOT MATTER that the U.S. in fact ranks a dismal 37th among developed nations when it comes to healthcare standards, IT DOES NOT MATTER that in fact our overall standard of living is far lower than those of other first-world countries. The people here have been led to believe that WE'RE NUMBER ONE! and all the rest of you are living in primitive ghettos with one bare bulb swinging over your heads and 90% of your salary going in taxes to some monolithic government. LOL! It's true! That's what we think! LOLOLOLOL!