Reactionary commentators are famous for making up bullshit ideas designed to scare ignorant people. The American right has the trademark on this particular ploy as they fight to remain the last industrialized country without Universal Health care.
I bet they have contests to see how many poor people they can bamboozle to fight against their own best interests…
This snippet gleaned from the Raw Story comment section illustrates what happens when someone calls conservative/reactionary commentators on their babblative bullshit.
“I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: You want to see a death panel, Mr. Halperin?
I’ll show you a letter on Anthem Blue Cross stationery I got back when Bush was still president and Obamacare was still Newt Gingrich’s plan that never happened.
It says “denial of benefits” on it, but what it is, when the only thing keeping you alive is a very expensive feeding tube, is a letter from a private, employer-provided insurance company’s Death Panel.
My doctor had no input in the decision. The experts providing care had no input in the decision. Just the insurance company’s reviewer, who decided that the continuing care was “not medically necessary”. Which, in context, was a euphemism for “You are too expensive to keep alive. Please die.” And if I hadn’t had enough money in the bank to deal with it myself, I would not be typing this today.
There’s your death panel, you ignorant shill. They exist. Private insurance companies have had them for years. Get sick enough, and if you’re unlucky, you might just hear from one. It isn’t fun. Oh, and you want to know what’s really funny? If I hadn’t been able to afford care by bleeding away my life savings, my other alternative would have been to move to Japan—where they have universal, government-supplied health care.”
So, conseradrones explain to me why you’re not raising holy hell over how private death panels (the insurance companies) are killing Americans.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
10 comments
May 13, 2014 at 6:59 am
Steve Ruis
I don’t understand why Democrats didn’t make this argument when the ACA was being debated. Could it have anything to do with the “campaign donations” they hoped to get from insurance companies? Eh?
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May 13, 2014 at 7:08 am
Steve Ruis
I guess I should add that an example of “health care rationing” is already in force … in the VA. Here is but one example: they kept records on which drugs worked and which did not. If a doctor prescribed a drug that did not work (or work as well) as a better drug, that fact became part of their job review. Now get this, they were not supposed to prescribe the cheapest drug but the most effective one, because that was the most cost effective (the one than works requires fewer follow-ups, visits to the E-room, etc.). If those are the cost containing measures in Obamacare/ACA, I am all for them.
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May 13, 2014 at 8:21 am
VR Kaine
Steve, i think this was beacuse the ACA wasn’t really debated. My personal belief is that the fear was if any of the fine details were known it would be an election-killer so much of the discussion/debate was convoluted and – again in my opinion – deliberately confused. (Remember Pelosi – we’ll have to pass it before we know what’s in it, for instance).
This allowed both parties to move forward on largely talking points alone rather than get into what exactly a death panel was, did private insurance already have them, etc..
As a Canadian and American resident I also happened to be in the middle of a health care situation myself with a terminally-ill relative during the time that the ACA was being introduced, so I got to explore the issue from a number of angles at the time. I know people want to harp on Republicans for this, but first-hand it was very disappointing and frustrating to see the ignorance on both sides of the aisle on the issue. In many ways the Dems were just as stupid.
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May 13, 2014 at 8:26 am
VR Kaine
I know the title of the post is “Stupid Ideas Conservative Dream Up” – fair enough – but an equally fair title is “Stupid Ways Dems Try and Implement Good Ideas” which is what this ACA has been – a good idea (no denial for pre-existing conditions) with absolutely the most ridiculous, airheaded, shitty implementation of anything ever.
Stupid Ideas on the one hand and Shitty Implementations on the other are why both the country and their economy is so upside-down right now. They’re both to blame.
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May 13, 2014 at 9:36 am
syrbal-labrys
Everyone on both sides of the party line seems to side-step the real problem: health care is for PROFIT in America — not for the health of citizens.
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May 13, 2014 at 9:45 am
john zande
@Steve
You nailed it. Why didn’t the Dems hammer this point?
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May 13, 2014 at 9:57 am
The Arbourist
@Vern
I had trouble with the title of the post Vern as I find that the term ‘conservative’ has its own special meaning in the US, that unfortunately means for all intensive purposes ‘reactionary’. The ACA was an issue that reactionary conservatives went to war on, it was their hill to die on and did everything in their power to repudiate, slow, and obfuscate not only the bill but the legislative process related to ACA.
Death Panels were but one plank in their hyperbolic assault on ACA.
I would contend that with an executive order, Obama could have implemented Universal Single Payer health care for the citizens of the US. It would have marked him, finally, as not beholden to the elite interests of society. Yet undoubtedly, he is because of the spoor that ACA is, it is an ineffectual plan that manages to serve the public interests poorly and continue to serve the private medical insurers.
I also contend that why the economy is so ‘upside-down’ right now is because both parties represent the interests of elite society – every policy that comes through US governance is necessarily predicated on protecting elite interests.
So, ya shitty implementation, but necessarily so.
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May 13, 2014 at 9:59 am
The Arbourist
@Syrbal
*ding ding ding* You win an internets for the most accurate observation of the day. :)
I could have not said it better myself.
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May 13, 2014 at 10:03 am
syrbal-labrys
This is what happens when I get up and have coffee early, you see! ;-)
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May 13, 2014 at 12:53 pm
VR Kaine
@Arb,
“I would contend that with an executive order, Obama could have implemented Universal Single Payer health care for the citizens of the US”
Imagine the pollitical uproar that would have caused? Fox would be showing goose-stepping doctors in front of the title “Single Payer!” with blood dripping down and hitler salutes everywhere! haha.
Politically this was probably the only viable starting point, so let’s see what Hillary does next election to make it HillaryCare as opposed to Obamacare.
@Syrbal
I’m actually in agreement with the spirit of your post, but I would gently argue that perhaps we don’t necessarily want to remove the profit motive altogether when it comes to health care. A modest profit margin that didn’t have to compete with market returns (i.e. not being weighed against investment returns from banks, tech stocks, etc.) would allow for healthy growth and reinvestment within the system to ease burden on taxpayers, and it would also incentivize healthy cost reductions within the organization. Otherwise totally agree with you – not starting/cancelling/not paying out policies for b.s. reasons and paying bonuses on how many you screwed over were greedy practices that had to (have to) end.
I get asked by a lot of Americans what our health care is like up here (Canada – Alberta). I tell them and most are surprised. I think we’d actually do better allowing a wider Tier 2 level of coverage for those who can afford it, but that’s another topic. :)
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