Death Panels

Obama surrogate Evan Thomas is for them.

The idea that we might ration health care to seniors (or anyone else) is political anathema. Politicians do not dare breathe the R word, lest they be accused—however wrongly—of trying to pull the plug on Grandma. But the need to spend less money on the elderly at the end of life is the elephant in the room in the health-reform debate. Everyone sees it but no one wants to talk about it. At a more basic level, Americans are afraid not just of dying, but of talking and thinking about death. Until Americans learn to contemplate death as more than a scientific challenge to be overcome, our health-care system will remain unfixable.

I don't believe that the only solution to solving our supposed healthcare crisis is death panels, although Obama clearly does.

And, there's the other, more subtle forms of rationing.

The normal critique of socialized medicine is to point out that people have to wait a long time for these kinds of treatments in places like Britain. And that's certainly a valid critique. I'm sure my mom and daughter would still be waiting for their treatments, while my father and wife would probably be dead.

The key point, though, is that these treatments didn't just come out out of the blue. They were developed by drug companies and device makers who thought they had a good market for things that would make people feel better.

I do wish that this were more prominent. The fact is that both indirectly, as in the above link and directly (here), Obamacare will stifle the introduction of new lifesaving drugs and treatments.

The argument that Obamacare with smother new treatments by outlawing profits might be a bit cerebral, so we should take advantage of the Democrat's oafishness by pointing out that they are actively attacking medical progress.