Sarah Palin on Health Care

Hi all:

Private Citizen Sarah Palin has been on a tear lately, writing up well-researched and documented essays on the current healthcare proposals.

It all started last Friday when she released this statement, which I'll post in its entirety because 1) it's short and 2) it's been grossly misrepresented in the media:

Statement on the Current Health Care Debate

Friday, August 7, 2009 at 4:26pm

As more Americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized health care plan that the current administration is rushing through Congress, our collective jaw is dropping, and we’re saying not just no, but hell no!

The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

Health care by definition involves life and death decisions. Human rights and human dignity must be at the center of any health care discussion.

Rep. Michele Bachmann highlighted the Orwellian thinking of the president’s health care advisor, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of the White House chief of staff, in a floor speech to the House of Representatives. I commend her for being a voice for the most precious members of our society, our children and our seniors.

We must step up and engage in this most crucial debate. Nationalizing our health care system is a point of no return for government interference in the lives of its citizens. If we go down this path, there will be no turning back. Ronald Reagan once wrote, “Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.” Let’s stop and think and make our voices heard before it’s too late.

- Sarah Palin

Rep. Bachmann's speech can be viewed here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CHBvKGmevI

Sarah Palin's Notes link: http://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin#/note.php?note_id=113851103434


Of course, the media keyed in on the "death panels," which was deliberately put in quotation marks because that term isn't in the bill. But the dunderhead media didn't get it and began screeching from the rooftops that "death panels aren't in the bill!"

So Sarah followed up the next day with a dozen or so articles, panels, and videos backing up her point that rationing to keep costs low will lead to death panels, or bureaucrats advising older people to consider taking less healthcare and either suffering more or dying sooner in order to save money for the younger, fitter, more productive set.

Here's the beginning of that post and the link if you want to consider all her sources:

Some Useful Commentary on the Health Care Debate

Saturday, August 8, 2009 at 5:50pm

As Americans spend the next few weeks discussing health care reform, I thought it might be helpful to share some articles (and one panel discussion video) that I’ve found especially insightful.

Washington Post editorial, July 26, 2009
“The Health-Care Sacrifice: What President Obama needs to tell the public about the cost of reform”

But Mr. Obama's soothing bedside manner masks the reality that getting health costs under control will require making difficult choices about what procedures and medications to cover. It will require saying no, or having the patient pay more, at times when the extra expense is not justified by the marginal improvement in care.

*********

Click the link below to read the rest of the sources and watch the video panel.

Sarah Palin's Notes link: http://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin#/note.php?note_id=114345578434

Those who support this monstrostiy of a government takeover of health care and our private lives couldn't argue in the face of that mountain of evidence - so they took to personal attacks instead, saying that as Governor, Palin didn't care about seniors.

So she posted her record of governance regarding seniors:

Palin Reduced Medicaid Backlog 83% In Two Years

Tue at 9:37 pm

Contrary to some assertions, Sarah Palin has a strong record supporting Alaskan seniors. For example, Governor Palin successfully obtained approval for a five year extension of a state program that provided monthly cash payments to low-income seniors.

On May 23, 2007, using a rarely invoked emergency regulation, Governor Palin ordered assistance benefits to continue for Alaska’s neediest seniors after the Alaska legislature failed to fund the SeniorCare Program. After her action, the legislature responded, and on July 28, 2007, Governor Palin signed Senate Bill 4 to continue support for low-income Alaskan seniors by adopting the Senior Benefits Program. “This program continues important assistance to Alaska seniors,” Governor Palin said. “I promised that seniors would not go hungry, and we worked with the Alaska Legislature to address this critical need.” It was estimated that 10,700 Alaskan seniors would be able to benefit under the program ...

Read the rest for more #s and graphs of the Medicare backlog, etc.

Sarah Palin's Notes link: http://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin#/note.php?note_id=115884633434

Then the President at his stage show in Portsmouth, NH, began bringing up death panels in answer to questions that had nothing to do with death panels. And Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called out Sarah Palin by name as the one who is spreading misinformation.

So Sarah responded with an in-depth, endnoted essay backing up her initial post, you know, the one that got everyone talking - including the President of the United States:

Concerning the "Death Panels"

Wed at 11:55pm

Yesterday President Obama responded to my statement that Democratic health care proposals would lead to rationed care; that the sick, the elderly, and the disabled would suffer the most under such rationing; and that under such a system these “unproductive” members of society could face the prospect of government bureaucrats determining whether they deserve health care.

The President made light of these concerns. He said:

“Let me just be specific about some things that I’ve been hearing lately that we just need to dispose of here. The rumor that’s been circulating a lot lately is this idea that somehow the House of Representatives voted for death panels that will basically pull the plug on grandma because we’ve decided that we don’t, it’s too expensive to let her live anymore....It turns out that I guess this arose out of a provision in one of the House bills that allowed Medicare to reimburse people for consultations about end-of-life care, setting up living wills, the availability of hospice, etc. So the intention of the members of Congress was to give people more information so that they could handle issues of end-of-life care when they’re ready on their own terms. It wasn’t forcing anybody to do anything.” [1]

The provision that President Obama refers to is Section 1233 of HR 3200, entitled “Advance Care Planning Consultation.” [2] With all due respect, it’s misleading for the President to describe this section as an entirely voluntary provision that simply increases the information offered to Medicare recipients. The issue is the context in which that information is provided and the coercive effect these consultations will have in that context ...

Read the rest for more cogent and sourced arguments.

Sarah Palin's Notes link: http://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin#/note.php?note_id=116471698434


And then, guess what happened?

The Senate Committe working on the bill decided to drop the end-of-life provision! As U.S. News & World Report put it:

In what can fairly be described as an admission that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin knew what she was talking about, the Senate Finance Committee Thursday dropped language from its bipartisan healthcare reform package that Palin and others had suggested would eventually lead to mandated end-of-life counseling sessions for seniors.

Supporters of Obamacare, including President Barack Obama, had accused Palin and others of being dishonest in suggesting the counseling sessions would somehow lead to the government encouraging euthanasia as a cost-cutting measure as part of rationed care.

Check out more details at C4P here: http://www.conservatives4palin.com/2009/08/senate-to-drop-end-of-life-provision.html


But those death panels are only one part of the onerous and ominous provisions in the 1,000 page bureacratic nightmare known as health care reform. So Sarah continues to analyze the bill:

Troubling Questions Remain About Obama's Health Care Plan

Today at 1:11am

I join millions of Americans in expressing appreciation for the Senate Finance Committee’s decision to remove the provision in the pending health care bill that authorizes end-of-life consultations (Section 1233 of HR 3200). It’s gratifying that the voice of the people is getting through to Congress; however, that provision was not the only disturbing detail in this legislation; it was just one of the more obvious ones.

As I noted in my statement last week, nationalized health care inevitably leads to rationing. There is simply no way to cover everyone and hold down the costs at the same time. The rationing system proposed by one of President Obama’s key health care advisors is particularly disturbing. I’m speaking of the “Complete Lives System” advocated by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of the president’s chief of staff. President Obama has not yet stated any opposition to the “Complete Lives System,” a system which, if enacted, would refuse to allocate medical resources to the elderly, the infirm, and the disabled who have less economic potential. [1] Why the silence from the president on this aspect of his nationalization of health care? Does he agree with the “Complete Lives System”? If not, then why is Dr. Emanuel his policy advisor? What is he advising the president on? I just learned that Dr. Emanuel is now distancing himself from his own work and claiming that his “thinking has evolved” on the question of rationing care to benefit the strong and deny the weak. [2] How convenient that he disavowed his own work only after the nature of his scholarship was revealed to the public at large.

The president is busy assuring us that we can keep our private insurance plans, but common sense (and basic economics) tells us otherwise. The public option in the Democratic health care plan will crowd out private insurers, and that’s what it’s intended to do. A single payer health care plan has been President Obama’s agenda all along, though he is now claiming otherwise. Don’t take my word for it. Here’s what he said back in 2003:


“I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care plan.... A single payer health care plan – universal health care plan – that’s what I would like to see.” [3] ...


Read on for more endnoted analysis.

Sarah Palin's Notes link: http://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin#/note.php?note_id=116979483434


And that's how it stands now.

If your congresspeople are holding town halls near you, consider going to one and voicing your opposition. Health care is one of the most private areas one can have. It's between oneself, one's God, one's family, and one's physician. Not one's government.

Let's keep it that way.

Engage!

hrh