Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:08 pm
As Sarah Palin continues to refuse to back off of her claim that healthcare reform would create death panels, something interesting has emerged from her time as Alaska governor. Last year as governor, Palin endorsed end of life counseling in a Healthcare Decision Days Proclamation. Palin was for death panels before she was against them.
According to Think Progress, the proclamation stated, “WHEREAS, Healthcare Decisions Day is designed to raise public awareness of the need to plan ahead for healthcare decisions, related to end of life care and medical decision-making whenever patients are unable to speak for themselves and to encourage the specific use of advance directives to communicate these important healthcare decisions…
WHEREAS, one of the principal goals of Healthcare Decisions Day is to encourage hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, continuing care retirement communities, and hospices to participate in a statewide effort to provide clear and consistent information to the public about advance directives, as well as to encourage medical professionals and lawyers to volunteer their time and efforts to improve public knowledge and increase the number of Alaska’s citizens with advance directives.
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WHEREAS, the Foundation for End of Life Care in Juneau, Alaska, and other organizations throughout the United States have endorsed this event and are committed to educating the public about the importance of discussing healthcare choices and executing advance directives.”
This is quite different from the argument that Palin continues to make on her Facebook page, “Yesterday President Obama responded to my statement that Democratic health care proposals would lead to rationed care; that the sick, the elderly, and the disabled would suffer the most under such rationing; and that under such a system these “unproductive” members of society could face the prospect of government bureaucrats determining whether they deserve health care.”
She said the consultations could be coercive, “With all due respect, it’s misleading for the President to describe this section as an entirely voluntary provision that simply increases the information offered to Medicare recipients. The issue is the context in which that information is provided and the coercive effect these consultations will have in that context.”
So it seems that Palin was in favor of the same “coercive death panels” last year that she now opposes. Apparently before she wanted to run for president end of life counseling was fine to encourage, but when Obama proposes the same thing, they are death panels. Palin’s obvious hypocrisy and flip flops are what make her such a joke. I am sure the cult of Sarah will have some sort of lame defense, or maybe Palin wants to kill grandma too.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
