No ‘death panel’ in health care bill

A provision in proposed health care reform bill would finance end-of-life care counseling — if patient wants it.
Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is once again showing she is not ready for prime-time when she says the current proposed health care overhaul bill would set up a "death panel." Palin inferred that federal bureaucrats would play God, ruling on whether ailing seniors are worthy enough to society to deserve life-sustaining medical care. Palin and other critics are dead wrong.

Perhaps this is obvious, but nothing in the legislation would carry out such a bleak vision. The provision that has caused this misguided and manufactured uproar, which opponents are all too glad to use to distract everyone from the real issues, would actually authorize Medicare to pay doctors for counseling patients about end-of-life care, if the patient wishes.