Who Runs The Death Panels, Again?

At Sick For Profit we've recognized for a long time that insurance companies make their money off of denying care to those who need it. Under any reasonable standard, that would be credibly seen as insurance company bureaucrats making decisions over a patient's life and death. But we live in America, where any old Alaskan can come up with a phrase and have it repeated endlessly by corporate media, to make the argument that a government-run insurance choice, not the for-profit insurance companies, engage in such behavior.

Our friends at Americans United For Change have the evidence on who has created the REAL "death panels".

This Linda Peeno clip comes from Michael Moore's movie Sicko, and so we've known about how insurance companies profit from denying care and allowing people to die for some time. I guess it's impolite for Democrats to actually make this point; Republicans don't have the same respect for decorum.

The truth is that you do not have health insurance, even if you think you're covered. You have a premium that you pay every month, but that does not guarantee that you will be covered if you get sick. It does not guarantee that you can get new coverage if you lose your insurance. It's more a fantasy of coverage than the actuality. Everyone under 65 assumes that their insurance will be there for them when they need it, but ask Linda Peeno -- your insurer makes their money on not being reliable.

And if that doesn't convince you, consider the curious truism that most people living under a system of guaranteed care really like it and zealously guard it. There are anecdotal stories, like Harry Shearer's tale of a friend in America versus a friend in Britain, or veteran Jon Soltz, who sings the praises of TRICARE and the VA and has voluminous polling and quality studies to back him up.

But I prefer to look at the case of David Cameron, the would-be Prime Minister of Britain and the head of the conservative Tories. Viewed through the left-right lens in this country, one would assume that the conservatives in Britain, suffering under the National Health Service, would want to dismantle it and return to a private market. There's just one problem; Cameron wants to get elected, and his countrymen, having lived under the NHS for decades, actually appreciate it. At least, that's what you have to conclude from Cameron's words this week:

David Cameron will today face down the Tory right when he pledges to deliver real-terms increases in NHS spending and casts the Conservatives as the party best placed to intensify Labour's "good" reforms.

In an attempt to regain the initiative on health after Tory MEP Daniel Hannan dismissed the NHS as a "60-year mistake" on US television, Cameron will disregard calls from the right for a freeze in spending as a step backwards.

Cameron, who was alarmed by Hannan's intervention during last week's transatlantic row over health reform, will say that only the Tories are offering the NHS a funding guarantee.

"Spending on the NHS cannot stand still, because standing still would be taking a step backwards," Cameron will say in a speech in the north-west of England before visiting an NHS hospital. "That is why we have pledged real-terms increases in NHS spending - unlike Labour - a fact which, to put it mildly, takes the wind out of their point-scoring sails."

You cannot win office in Britain, be you Margaret Thatcher or Tony Benn, without promising to protect and even expand the NHS. That's a measure of customer satisfaction, to borrow a phrase from the business world. I don't see a similar enthusiasm in this country to expand the private insurance market, to take over Medicare, or the VA, or any of the other public programs. At least nowhere this side of Tom DeLay, a disgraced politician who will never have to face voters again. I notice DeLay didn't move to do anything of the sort when he had control of the House and conservatives were firmly in charge of all three branches of government.

The lived experience of Americans who have actually used the health care system is one where insurance companies profit off denial of care and government-run programs actually work pretty well. Absurd statements like "Get your government hands off my Medicare" only works as a scare tactic because of Democratic weakness in arguing loudly for government that can expand opportunity and access and deliver health care cheaper and with better quality. The rest of the industrialized world has figured this out. They don't like insurance company CEOs having to choose between obscene profits or caring for their customers, because they'll always pick the former. They'll resort to the Limbaugh rule, named after the head of the GOP, who this week told a caller struggling to afford $6,000 to treat a broken wrist: "Well, you shouldn't have broken your wrist."

We can either have that kind of "compassionate conservatism," complete with insurance company death panels, or real compassion. That's the choice in health care reform.

Follow David Dayen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ddayen

Comments

[CaliTLC]

The GOP is the real Death Panel. They don't want Americans to be healthy.

[llisa]

They just want President Obama to fail no matter what the cost to the country and their constituents.

[Keith Lemire]

However you are lucky, or rather your son is. If tragedy should take you, and your husband away from this world, and from Trig, he would be taken care of. His food, shelter, cloths, and medical expenses would all become covered under social security, and medicare. He would most likely spend the rest of his life in a group home with people much like himself, and a 24 hour nursing staff who will not only take care of him, but will spend time with him, play with him, and laugh with him. Social security is the safety net for all people like Trig, and it is a government run, publicly funded, system that has lasted 74 years. Would a private, or public enterprise whose sole purpose is to make a profit take care of Trig? Or would they put him before a panel? I think we both know the answer to that question. So why are you advocating in favor of the death panels, that really do exist, for so many of your fellow Americans?

A fellow American;
Keith.J.Lemire

[kitkatborn]

Fanned and faved. I still have trouble believing the unmitigated gall of that woman in using her son & her parents in this manner. Very good post.

[llisa]

Exactly! And those of us who survive the death panel insurance companies spend years paying off the loans we had to take out to stay alive. The only thing that kept us from losing our house after my daughter's neurosurgeries was that my Dad died seven years later and left me some money that allowed us to pay the loans off. But, we had used all the money saved for the kids' college and our retirement to pay hospitals and doctoras, so we will be paying college loans for a long time, and can not afford to ever retire.

If we run up any major health care bills again, we have no relatives left to expect even a modest inheritance from. Maybe I will want a death panel to vote against me, in that case, if this bill doesn't pass.

[Keith Lemire]

Dear Sarah Palin; The Death Panel Already Exists and People Have Already Been Judged, an open letter.

On May 30, 1996 Linda Peeno testified before congress that she was responsible for the death of a man by denying him life saving care. She testified that no one held her accountable, and instead, she was rewarded with a six figure raise.

How dare you Mrs. Palin, how dare you accuse a possible solution to this problem with the monstrously sick crime that is already taking place. Everyday your fellow Americans are being put before panels that will decide their fate. Only they never get to see the faces of the people that hold their fate, and they get no appeals. They are powerless, vulnerable, and they need our help. They are, our neighbors, our friends, our lovers, and our children, and we the people, that are stuck in this broken system demand to be given a way out. Obama promised us change to a broken health care system, and we yelled, cheered, and with the power of our vote put, not only him, but his entire party into majority power status. They know what we want, they know that we put them there, and they know we can replace them. They answer to us, we the people. (con't in next comment)

[Dosadi]

Repeat after me. Git rid of the middle man, get rid of the middle man, get rid of the middle man. This is the only sure way to bring costs down.

[JEP]

Death Panel?

Would it not be accurate to say that HMO's essentially represent "death panels" when they deny certain types of coverage, both proven and experimental, to extremely ill patients?

How many have died during this era of book-cooker-managed health care, because some "panel" denied them coverage?

Surely someone has an estimate of that number, and I would bet it is simply mind boggling. The very healthcare corporations that now so proactively conjure up images of hooded executioners signing death warrants on aging patients, have caused the premature deaths of probably millions of people over the decades.

These days, anyone without conections, money and power, regardless of how much they pay for their healthcare, are about as safe as Bill Frist's neighbors' cats were back when he was "studying" them with such mortal finality...

[Dosadi]

Yes.

[blakeart]

George Carlin Addresses “Death Panels” as a “guest blogger” in my latest post - Check it out here:

http://blameblakeart.wordpress.com

[llisa]

Yeah, I can't imagine that anyone who has ever had a truly sick family member would want to continue the status quo. When my 15-year-old daughter had to have three brain surgeries within four months, I had to fight for the insurance to pay for every one of them and her surgeon had to fight for enough days in the hospital. For one of the surgeries, when they denied the days he knew she needed to be monitored, he got us a room in the attached hotel and came and treated her there! The hotel was affordable, uninsured days in the hospital were outlandishly expensive.

During one surgery, she had some bleeding they could not stop in the normal way and it had to be cauterized. This cauterization was counted by the insurance company as a separate surgery and, since it had not been pre-approved, they refused to pay any costs related to it.

And even if you get pre-approval for a surgery, you get a form letter in the mail saying that pre-approval does not indicate that the procedure will be paid for. Huh?

(continued below)

[llisa]

(continued from above)

I had a procedure to help with my breathing (removal of excess tissue INSIDE my throat) which the insurance guys decided was cosmetic and refused to pay for. And, I had my gallbladder removed which they decided had been unnecessary and refused to pay for. I wanted to mail them the gallstones, especially the one that had been blocking the duct and causing excruciating pain.

Even when they insurance companies pay, they pay a certain percentage of "usual and customary costs". You will find out that their idea of usual and customary costs is lagging far behind real and actual costs.You are screwed by insurance companies whether they pay or not.

Our doctors should decide what treatment we need, not insurance companies.

[pontesisto]

If you would like to help pressure Congress to pass single payer health care in a democratic and constructive way please join our voting bloc at:
http://www.votingbloc.org/Health_Bloc.php