Approximately 20,000 Americans die annually due to lack of insurance or under-insurance. 137,000 between 2000 and 2006. Uninsured adults are 25 percent more likely to die prematurely. Insurance companies deny care, delay necessary and life-threatening medical procedures, and rescind previously existing coverage because of paperwork errors.
The real “death panels” already exist, and Joe Conason sums them up:
So who are the members of the death panels?
You can find them among the corporate bureaucrats who concoct excuses to deny coverage and throw the sick off their rolls. You can find them among the politicians and lobbyists who have stalled reform for years while people died. You can find them among the morons who show up to shout slogans at town halls rather than seek solutions. And you can find them among the cable and radio blabbers, who invent scary stories about reform to conceal the sickening truth.
H/T: @brucebarry and @freddieoconnell.
Thanks for stopping by, Tom! Conservatives control the media and therefore they also control the message. And the message – in this case lies about healthcare reform and “the end of our country as we know it” – induces fear. It’s a calculated effort. You can all conservative talk radio listeners idiots if you want but the real idiots are the ones who have a national news platform and choose to report on “death panels” one of only two ways – 1) When they cover the discussion surrounding the policy and not the policy itself and 2) when they use lies like “Obama wants death panels” as a way to balance their reporting on the actual reform bill (i.e. “some say that Obama wants death panels” instead of “the report that Obama wants death panels is a total lie.”)
Per a July 26, 2006 JAMA report, the third leading cause of death in America is “iatrogenics.” Iatrogenics is defined as “induced by doctor or therapy”. Examples, are unecessary surgeries, medication error in hospitals, and negative effects of drugs.
DEATH PANELS! DEATH PANELS! DEATH PANELS!
What could possibly be the explanation for the American people’s positive genius for falling for the most blatant and obvious propaganda? I have a possible theory if you’re interested in hearing it….
We’re idiots.
That could be the only explanation. What other reason could there possibly be? Any takers?
When a contemptible half-wit like Sarah Palin “twits” (an appropriate word) about “death panels” and the next moment it is a serious part on the national conversation – there is really something seriously wrong.
Here is (Excuse me, I meant “was”) a golden opportunity for real reform and the idiotic Americans are screaming about socialism. Is it any wonder that we are the laughingstock of the industrialized world?
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Tom Degan