Reason in Health Care

Hierarchy conservators used "death panel" propaganda to undermine efforts in the U.S. to establish an equitable system of health care that many other nations have. The label of "Death Panels" was created by Sarah Palin when she charged that proposed legislation would allow bureaucrats to decide whether Americans—such as her elderly parents or child with Down syndrome—were worthy of medical care. This myth helped turn Americans move away from a single-payer system and towards a system that benefits insurance companies.

Our expensive health care system will continue to make many individuals and companies extremely wealthy, because they will reap financial benefits from the troubles of other people. They will continue to perform expensive procedures to keep people alive who, without intervention, would die naturally instead of lingering in an undesirable state (see the article below).

In this well-written, thought-provoking article about his mother, Michael Wolff says, "What I would not do for a fair-minded body to whom I might plead for my mother's end."

We're glad we live in Oregon, the state that pioneered assisted suicide.

http://theweek.com/article/index/229621/dementia-the-ending-no-one-wants