Sarah Palin Continues to Insist that Death Panels Are Real

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:08 pm

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In her written testimony to the New York State Senate on healthcare reform former Alaska governor Sarah Palin continues to insist that her claim that healthcare reform would create death panels is real and now has been validated. Palin wrote, “Despite repeated attempts by many in the media to dismiss this phrase as a “myth”, its accuracy has been vindicated.”

Palin continued to defend her death panels claim by writing, “A great deal of attention was given to my use of the phrase “death panel” in discussing such rationing. Despite repeated attempts by many in the media to dismiss this phrase as a “myth”, its accuracy has been vindicated. In the face of a nationwide public outcry, the Senate Finance Committee agreed to “drop end-of-life provisions from consideration entirely because of the way they could be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly.”

Later she wrote, “The fact is that any group of government bureaucrats that makes decisions affecting life or death is essentially a “death panel.” The work of Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, President Obama’s health policy advisor and the brother of his chief of staff, is particularly disturbing on this score. Dr. Emanuel has written extensively on the topic of rationed health care, describing a “Complete Lives System” for allotting medical care based on “a priority curve on which individuals aged between roughly 15 and 40 years get the most chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get chances that are attenuated.”

She concluded by repeating the GOP talking points on healthcare, “Such ideas are shocking, but they could ultimately be used by government bureaucrats to help determine the treatment of our loved ones. We must ensure that human dignity remains at the center of any proposed health care reform. Real health care reform would also follow free market principles, including the encouragement of health savings accounts; would remove the barriers to purchasing health insurance across state lines; and would include tort reform so as to potentially save billions each year in wasteful spending connected to the filing of frivolous lawsuits. H.R. 3200 is not the reform we are looking for.”

Once again, Sarah Palin seems to have forgotten that as Alaska governor she supported the same end of life counseling that she now calls death panels. In 2008, Palin issued a proclamation that 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…”

Palin and Chuck Grassley seem to be the only high profile Republicans who are still standing by the death panel claim. The problem is that there never was a death panel in the bill. End of life counseling is not the same as a death panel.

This seems like a desperate attempt by Sarah Palin to undo some of the damage that her death panel statements did her political future. She is also trying to get her name back in the news, because she is finding out that without her platform as governor, she is relegated to posting on Facebook and Twitter.

Jason Easley

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