Death panel (ePub)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! "e;Death panel"e;, (sometimes called the "e;death panel"e; myth), is a term that originated during a 2009 partisan, political debate regarding health care reform in the United States. Protesters opposing the pending legislation used the term during local town hall meetings with U.S. Congressmen in August 2009. The term was also repeated or editorialized by politicians and commentators throughout the media. The death panel claim portrayed the federal government of the United States as attempting to encourage euthanasia among the elderly and to ration health care on the basis of perceived social worth. The term originates with, and gained notoriety from, a Facebook post of former Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin playing off the comments of former lieutenant governor of New York, Betsy McCaughey. Palin charged that government run healthcare put Americans, such as her parents or child with Down syndrome in a position of being denied treatment due to Obama's "e;death panel"e;. Both referred to section 1233 of HR 3200 which would have reimbursed physicians for counseling Medicare patients about living wills, advance directives, and end-of-life care options. The section was removed from the Senate bill and never became part of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The bill had the support of the Democratic President of the US Barack Obama.