I think a lot of people picture a Death Panel as a row of doctors at a table discussing Mary Smith, age 58, and deciding to give her an enormous shot of morphine rather than pay for her dialysis. The Sheeple say "That would never happen!" And they are right -- but no one says that's what a Death Panel is like. Death Panels are a lot more subtle than that. Doesn't make them less deadly.
That's the key right there. Medicine has become such a technical and specialized field, the average person would not know if a Dr. was withholding options. Sure, if called on it the Doc could say such and such procedure or protocol was "experimental" or "had problems" with this interaction or that in XYZ's case. Anything aggressive is probably also going to be risky, and a Doc could cover their backside (and the hospital's and the insurance company's...) with a bunch of "best interests of the patient" BS.
I blame the media. They purposefully promote stupid arguments in order to re-direct the conversation. Meanwhile, folks are convinced the government would never overtly ‘kill’ them, never considering the government would simply withhold live saving measures based on age, etc.
Another stupid argument proposed....”we can’t deport 12 million people, it’s impossible”. Media and pro-amnesty politicians purposefully re-direct and won’t touch ‘attrition through enforcement’.
Media is holding these and many other conversations hostage.