Palin Uses Her Family To Spread Health Care Lies

She just posted this on her Facebook page…

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.

She cites Michele Bachmann’s recent speech as a source for this worry…

Trusting Bachmann to give you the facts? Hmm, Palin may want to rethink that in the future.

Still, Bachmann cites Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a health policy adviser to Obama, and a 1996 paper he penned in which he wrote the following…

This civic republican or deliberative democratic conception of the good provides both procedural and substantive insights for developing a just alloca- tion of health care resources. Procedurally, it suggests the need for public forums to deliberate about which health services should be considered basic and should be socially guaranteed. Substantively, it suggests services that promote the continuation of the polity-those that ensure healthy future genera- tions, ensure development of practical reasoning skills, and ensure full and active participation by citizens in public deliberations-are to be socially guaranteed as basic. Conversely, services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed. An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia. A less obvious example Is is guaranteeing neuropsychological services to ensure children with learning disabilities can read and learn to reason.

So, a few things…

First, none of the plans proposed would set up these kinds of forums to determine what is and isn’t appropriate care. In fact, all of the plans do away with pre-existing condition clauses.

Second, Palin’s “death panels” already do exist in the policies of the private insurance providers. As noted here and elsewhere, Americans get denied services every single day. This is business as usual in the private sector.

Third, Palin and Bachmann know both of these things, and they’re simply trying to scare Americans into believing that Obamacare will force them to kill their parents and children.

It is a sad, sorry state of affairs indeed when the opposition is using such desperate tactics, but there it is.

Here’s the question: Is the “Obama is going to kill your family” meme working?

(Photo: Reuters via Daylife)