Obamacare's 'Death Panel'

Obamacare's 'Death Panel'

The Supreme Court today begins three days of listening to oral arguments from lawyers in favor and opposed to the new national health care law known as "Obamacare."

One of the most egregious sections of the law is the Independent Payment Advisory Board. The IPAB will be made up of 15 people. They will decide who gets an operation and who does not. Cost will be the primary yardstick, along with age and other factors that have nothing to do with the endowed right to life of the patient.

The panel's mandate will be to cut Medicare spending. It will decide who gets a pain pill, as the president has said with so little sensitivity, and who gets life-saving surgery.

The Left doesn't like it when conservatives call this a death panel, but the outcome will be the same no matter the name. If you don't measure up to the standard set by the panel, you will be allowed to die.

Government runs few things well. It will run health care even less well, especially if you are a patient who depends on its favor for your life. Let's hope and pray the court does the right thing.

I'm Cal Thomas in Washington.

Publication date: March 26, 2012

Obamacare's 'Death Panel'