Did Republicans just say they were fine with ‘death panels’

Remember the “death panels” hysteria in 2009 or so when the Affordable Care Act was under development? (PolitiFact called “death panels” the “lie of the year” for 2009, not surprising, since the idea apparently originated with that truth stretcher extraordinaire, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.) As you may have heard, that rhetoric resurfaced during town halls held by a few Republican members of Congress. That idiocy came from language in the ACA that authorized Medicare to pay for voluntary end-of-life counseling. It was falsely projected as a “mandatory” activity every five years. Some of the hysteria also stemmed from a specific clause in the ACA that said: Establishes an Independent Payment Advisory Board to develop and submit detailed proposals to reduce the per capita rate of growth in Medicare spending to the President for Congress to consider. Establishes a consumer advisory council to advise the Board on the impact of payment policies under this title on consumers. The fear, from the right-wing punditry was that bureaucrats would start to deny care to older, sicker Americans. Well, the American Health Care Act leaves that provision in place, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation: Other ACA provisions related to Medicare are not changed, including: * Increase Medicare premiums (Parts B and D) for higher income beneficiaries (those with incomes above $85,000/individual and $170,000/couple). * Authoriz...
Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: health reform Healthcare IT Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act politics American Health Care Act Medicare Source Type: blogs