Poll: Nearly Half Of Americans Believe "Death Panel" Falsehood

The Plum Line:

There's a pretty striking finding buried in the new NBC/WSJ poll: It turns out nearly half of Americans believe the "death panel" fib.

The pollster read a series of predictions about the health care plan, and asked Americans whether they were "likely to happen" or "unlikely to happen." In the "death panel" one, Americans were asked whether the health care proposal...

Read the whole story: The Plum Line

Comments

[CJWebber]

11:56 AM on 08/22/2009

Is absolutely everything in America polled? No matter how the topic or how ridiculous, there is a poll on it, constant polls yet no one seems to know anyone who has ever been polled.

This is another attempt to dumb down the people by offering 'group think' where no critical thinking is involved. Just go with the flow. And the scary part is that it works.

[ncmom54]

04:19 PM on 08/20/2009

re-post:

If 'Death Panels' don't exist... then what would you call this?

Excerpt from article: http://bit.ly/ziv6i

“My daughter survived two bouts of cancer, and against all odds has been stable even with so many of her organs not working, only to be told that she cannot get the only treatment that will save her life because some administrator in some office thinks it is too expensive,” said Hilda Sarkisyan. “We needed help in standing up against this insurance provider, and of course it was the nurses who stepped forward.”

In a Dec. 11 letter to CIGNA’s transplant department, four UCLA physicians said that Nataline “currently meets criteria to be listed as Status 1A” for a transplant and urged the company to “urgently re-review her case” and their denial. CIGNA said it denied the care because their benefit plan “does not cover experimental, investigational and unproven services,” to which the doctors replied, “Nataline’s case is in fact none of the above.”

On Dec. 14, Hilda Sarkisyan was told by the hospital that a healthy liver was available, but because CIGNA had refused authorization, the family would have had to make an immediate down payment of $75,000 to proceed, an amount the family could not afford.

[kinnycut]

11:08 AM on 08/20/2009

This proves that only half of Americans are not gullible enough, or stupid enough to believe such total bulls--t. A "death panel" even within a true socialized system like England's, which neither the President, or Congress supports, would be impossible because it runs contrary to the very theory of socialized medicine. They whole point of socialized medicine is to make certain every citizen of the country gets the health care they need from birth to death. If they were actually killing Grandmas in Canada, the number of senior citizens migrating from Canada to the US would rival the number of illegals coming from Mexico.

[CJWebber]

12:51 PM on 08/20/2009

True. How do Canadians have a long life expectancy rate if they are pulling the plug on Grandma?

[mdlw]

10:26 AM on 08/20/2009

Palin continues to spew venom while deceiving the American public. Check out the video and see for yourself.

http://palingates.blogspot.com/2009/07/sarah-palins-pregnancy-is-hot-topic.html

During Palin's partial term in office, 254 aged or disabled Alaskans died from lack of Medicare/Medicaid services. The Federal Government stepped in after becoming aware of the problem when wrongful death lawsuits were filed. Palin's own death panel.

http://www.adn.com/life/health/story/864670.html

[BabblingBrooks]

10:09 AM on 08/20/2009

It's not a falsehood unless one insides on the exact language, "death panels," being in the bill. Just because they are called commissions or committees or something else doesn't mean they won't make life-and-death decisions based on how much they decide a life is worth.

[hhayden]

10:39 AM on 08/20/2009

And some bureaucrat will be making those decisions. It won't bother liberals until it hits them personally. Then it's too late. Conservatives don't want to wait till it's too late.

[IFTYS]

09:45 AM on 08/20/2009

If it was such a "falsehood" why did the democrats end up REMOVING this falsehood provision???

[seeksense]

09:53 AM on 08/20/2009

End-of-life-care and living will provision have not been removed genius.
Congress is not in session at this time. Think.

[hhayden]

10:45 AM on 08/20/2009

You think the peons havn't been cutting and pasting on this while their boss's have been getting a pasted across the country?

[hhayden]

10:43 AM on 08/20/2009

The white flag is flying over Camp Obama, which makes a pleasant change from the red flag that, metaphorically speaking, has been flying there since January 20. Barack Obama’s plan for socialised health care on the Stalinist model across the United States is now in full retreat. Not only will it not play in Peoria, it will not play anywhere.

Politicians returning to Washington after scrubbing off the tar and feathers acquired at town-hall meetings are bringing with them a blast of reality that has been absent from Obama’s dreamland regime since his inauguration. For months Obama had been trumpeting the indispensable nature of his “public option” in a new health care system. Suddenly, it is no big deal. Kathleen Sebelius, the Health and Human Services Secretary, is now telling Americans that taxpayer-funded insurance was “not the essential element”.

[seeksense]

09:43 AM on 08/20/2009

How did these people get to be so stooopid?
If Obama wanted to exterminate people would he have congress write a bill and display his intentions for all to see? Think about it.
Would he not just come after those he intended to euthanize....send out his death squads in the night, take you away without notice? Think about it.
Oh, I forgot, these people are incapable of thoughts of their own.

[hhayden]

10:49 AM on 08/20/2009

A problem is that they ARE hiding their true intentions. Shows just how bad they must be given what they are willing to reveal.

Our thoughts are not Obama's, so they are obviously our own.

[qthedancer]

09:20 AM on 08/20/2009

See, this is why I moved to Europe.

[hhayden]

10:50 AM on 08/20/2009

So you can suffer in a nicer environment?

[timberdoodle]

09:06 AM on 08/20/2009

There are just too many mentally and intellectually challenged Americans and they are easy prey for the Death Squads Fox News and the Republicans organize to attend the townhalls.

If anyone thinks these aren't Death Squads then perhaps they should look at the consequences of not passing strong health care reform will be. 20,000 needless deaths a year that will only grow in numbers as people lose their coverage and jobs.

If this isn't domestic terrorism then nothing is.

[dholl69]

09:03 AM on 08/20/2009

I think there should be a poll to see if this poll is accurate. What is with all the polls these days to determine how people are thnking and oddly I have not been included in any of them so not sure if these folks represent me or not. Definitely don't in this one!

[Samlas]

08:59 AM on 08/20/2009

How much is she getting from Insurance & Pharmaceutical companies?

[CommonSenseMom]

08:56 AM on 08/20/2009

The GOP is the party of the anti-intellectual and the under educated. When you don't have brains you rely on emotions....the negative ones. The media knows that very well......if it bleeds it sells.... CHA CHING!

[verycold]

08:45 AM on 08/20/2009

The only way to drastically reduce rising health care costs is to somehow eliminate the ones sucking up the money. It really is that simple. Is it economically wise, is it even sustainable, to keep pouring money into an 80 year old person?

When my mother was 83, she had a major stroke. At that time, they found out she had cancer in the brain and lungs. She had melanoma cancer. She was NOT going to recover. TOO LATE. My mother knew it, the doctor knew it, her children knew it. No amount of drugs, procedures, etc., was going to change the fact that it was TOO LATE. She would hang on another year. Her children were convinced by the doctors to allow her to have radiation to stop the cancer from eating up her brain. It was a mistake. We should never have done it . She got nothing from it, but the cost to the health care system was enormous. Each time she got into the ambulance it cost thousands.

What should have happened was a group gathering and for everybody to face the truth and make her passage to death painless. It would happen with morphine patches down the road anyway and so why wait until she is in a coma?

Grow up. There will be death panels. We have no choice.

[romavictor]

08:25 AM on 08/20/2009

There is a death panel in America right now. It's consist of 40 upper and 178 lower house republicans lead by grassley.

[me again]

08:22 AM on 08/20/2009

You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.....wake up America!

[EminemsRevenge]

08:37 AM on 08/20/2009

There's a SUCKER born every minute...so the GOP won't be extinct anytime soon.