For three years, the left have railed against Sarah Palin, ridiculing the former Governor’s claims of Death Panels operating within the Affordable Care Act.
But Sarah has at last been vindicated. The Oregon Health Authority (OHA)–the state agency that is bringing Oregon health plans into line with ObamaCare mandates–is promoting a guideline which states that “…treatment with intent to prolong survival is not a covered service for patients who have progressive metastatic cancer and are not able (in the view of the physician) to be helped. Palliative care is all that will be provided.” (My italics)
But in a law filled with personal affronts to the liberty loving, perhaps the most palpably unconstitutional provision introduces the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), a group whose 15 members are selected exclusively by the president and whose stated purpose is the reduction of Medicare spending. Not only are Board members unelected; neither Congress nor any future president will have veto authority over recommended IPAB cuts unless they can obtain a super-majority (3/5ths) vote in the Senate, a majority in the House, and the president’s signature! Failing these extraordinary requirements, all Board “suggestions” for the reduction of Medicare expense MUST go into effect immediately!
In short, the IPAB effectively wields more authority than Congress or the President! It is a thoroughly unconstitutional mix of corruption and tyrannical power for which the American people have the Democrat Party and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to thank.
By the way, the Board’s expense reductions in medical care will naturally target seniors almost exclusively; that is, voters who favored even the weak Mitt Romney candidacy by a 56%-44% margin and often vote Republican by even wider margins in midterm election years. Just a coincidence, no doubt.
But fortunately, Oregonians need not despair. For written into ObamaCare’s death panel guidelines is a codicil through which care to the critically ill might actually be provided. According to the Oregon Health Authority, “in order to qualify for treatment coverage, the patient must undergo a ‘discussion’ and, evidently if he can prove he can live anyway, then he can get treatment.”
In other words, if a patient can successfully convince the doctor who deemed the case hopeless that his diagnosis was WRONG, the patient can qualify for treatment! Get a doctor to admit before God–and more importantly, his colleagues–that he was wrong!
Now what could be more fair than that?!
