The ER docs were encouraged to not admit patients of a certain age, medical problem and average insurance. And the ER docs were given bonuses for this action.

I was told that the owners of this particular health care system (5 hospitals total) felt settling the occasional lawsuit was cheaper than admitting all the people that by ethical and moral codes should be admitted. Check out http://swineflureader.com

First, in a bill that is called the Health Care Affordability Act, what is a provision doing in there to pay doctors to do counseling? How does that make health care more affordable?

Second, why are doctors going to be paid more for something that is already federally mandated? – people are already supposed to be notified of their end of life options when they are admitted.

Third, people like Ezekiel Emanuel continually cite rationing in their articles. Now it is true Dr. Emanuel has gone on record as being against rationing but the problem is he doesn’t say what he is for- when resources become constrained. Let him explain why rationing can be avoided.

Fourth, the experience in Britain is sobering, the Daily Telegraph has documented rationing decisions made at the expense of the elderly in thousands of cases. This is never addressed by the people who are quick to deny death panels.

IT would be a lot more comforting if those who are proponents of HR 3200, instead of treating the concerns so lightly and saying “there are no death panels” would say we understand these concerns, they are legitimate- here is what we will do to make sure this doesn’t happen.

The fact is there are no death panes but the current health care bill is short on details – and that doesn’t mean that there won’t be death panels in the future unless those constructing the bills assure the public.