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Sarah Palin was right
The Daily Caller ^ | February 18, 2012 | David Merritt, former CEO, Center for Health Transformation

Posted on 02/18/2012 4:57:41 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

In the summer of 2009, when the outrage over the Democrats’ emerging health care reform bills was at its height, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was excoriated by the left for saying:

“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.”

The roiling debate over the HHS decision to mandate universal coverage for contraceptive services takes us back to Palin’s remarks.

Obamacare requires health plans to offer certain benefits, like contraception services, annual physicals, vaccinations, and breastfeeding “support and supplies,” with no co-pay, co-insurance, or deductible. The benefits themselves are not the problem — wellness and prevention services are absolutely critical to reining in health care costs and contraception services should be available for those who want them, which they are. (I keep hearing how 98% of Catholics use birth control. Doesn’t this prove that access to contraception isn’t a problem?)

What’s dangerous about these mandates is that they give government the power to decide whether you’ll purchase insurance, who and what will be covered by that insurance, and if businesses are offering good enough insurance.

President Gerald Ford once said, “A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.” For now, the government is giving — or requiring businesses to give — more health services to Americans through subsidies, mandates, and other means. But Obamacare, which grants the HHS secretary 1,968 new or expanded powers, also gives the government the power to take.

Just look at the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), a federal council of 15 political appointees that is specifically charged with cutting Medicare spending. Keep in mind that controlling Medicare spending means not paying for medical services or paying less for them, making it less likely that a doctor or hospital will provide the care.

Richard Foster, the chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, noted shortly after the passage of Obamacare that the cuts IPAB makes between 2015 and 2019 will total $24 billion. But the Congressional Budget Office recently predicted that IPAB would cut much more after that because “Medicare spending is projected to grow at rates that generally exceed the IPAB’s target.” (So much for Obamacare reducing health care costs.) To reach its cost-cutting targets, this government board will ultimately decide how much Medicare will spend on seniors’ medical care.

The reason the government will ultimately take things away is that giving everything to everyone is unsustainable. Setting aside Obamacare and its “free” services, just look at the size of the debt. The gross national debt has tripled since 2001 to more than $15 trillion, with $5 trillion coming during President Obama’s first three years — about $4.4 billion a day. It will total nearly $22 trillion by 2022, according to a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office. Medicare is no better. The federal government has promised tens of trillions of dollars in benefits that it will not have the money to cover. The staggering federal debt will force the government to take — through a combination of regulations and boards like IPAB.

All of this is to say that Governor Palin’s “death panels” don’t seem so far-fetched today.

******

David Merritt is a sought-after author, speaker, and policy adviser and is the former CEO of the Center for Health Transformation and the Gingrich Group.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Health/Medicine; Politics
KEYWORDS: congress; deathpanels; medicare; obama; obamacare; palin; sarahpalin

1 posted on 02/18/2012 4:57:49 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The Death panels are not far-fetched at all.

This ruling on catholics and Insurance came out of nowhere. It wasn’t written in the Obamacare Bill.

What was actually written gave the Secretary of Health and Human services—Sebellius— the right to dictate to the Catholic Church and others what kind of insurance they were allowed to buy.

What else is she allowed to dictate?
Is there a limit to what she can dictate?
Did she dictate this or did it come down from Obama?

When Nancy Pelosi said we had to vote for the Bill to see what was in it-—she wasn’t even close. They voted for the bills but this wasn’t in it. It appears to me that the Secretary of Health and Human services can put in whatever she or the President want to put in it.

Death panels are not that far off.


2 posted on 02/18/2012 5:40:14 PM PST by Venturer
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Very simply, the Communist anti Christ OBama MUST be defeated in November!


3 posted on 02/18/2012 7:21:06 PM PST by bs4u
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To: bs4u
I wholeheartedly agree that CZAR B.O. must be defeated in November!

However, this policy did not originate with B.O. It is only one of the many Socialist initiatives that represent the very essence of the Democrap Party.

The sad part is the "Opposition" has wasted three years giving credit/blame to B.O. when the effort should have been principally directed at the Democrap Party. For example, NO U.S. Budget for over 1000 days. Why haven't the Republican majority in the House initiated IMPEACHMENT proceedings?
4 posted on 02/18/2012 8:15:04 PM PST by leprechaun9
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
(I keep hearing how 98% of Catholics use birth control. Doesn’t this prove that access to contraception isn’t a problem?)

I guess the high use of contraceptives by Catholics does demonstrate that it is readily available w/o gov't edicts. But, where in the heck do they get the 98% from? Are 98% of Catholics in the child-bearing years? Seems unlikely...

5 posted on 02/19/2012 3:36:28 AM PST by trebb ("If a man will not work, he should not eat" From 2 Thes 3)
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To: Venturer

What Passed in the Obamacare Bill Was The OUTLINE ONLY,The Details to be filled in later. The Power Was given to the abortion Queen at HHS to fill in the Details.Pelosi proudly announced that to us all when she said we have to pass it to find out whats in it.
Now if you want the Ideology to get your clue as to what is going to be coming,check out The IPAB,but also check out Ezekiel Emmanuel who Obama put in charge of the Comparative Effectiveness Research Panel with 1 Billion dollars in the STIMULUS Package,Emmanuel whos “COMPLETE LIVES SYSTEM”,is going to be the Model where Seniors and the very young will be eliminated from any expensive Health care treatment


6 posted on 02/19/2012 5:24:46 AM PST by ballplayer
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To: ballplayer
The Power Was given to the abortion Queen at HHS to fill in the Details.

And she has not finished filling in the details. She has the authority to change the details at anytime. These "details" affect ALL Americans. If this is not a dictatorship, then I do not know what one is. Obamacare is a usurption of power. period. It is not about healthcare.

7 posted on 02/19/2012 6:25:38 AM PST by VRW Conspirator (Neo-communist equals Neo-fascist)
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