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I wish you would discuss in your program HEALTH CARE PROGRAMSthe BIG SECRET: All industrialized countries with superior, universal, and cheaper health insurance coverage FORBID FOR PROFIT HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES to be part of the system.)

Sick Around the World, PBS, TV PROGRAM FRONT LINE, available in internet:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/ (This documentary was based on the investigation of T. H. Reid but he asked that his name be removed from the documentary when PBS cut an important part of his finding: All industrialized countries with superior, universal, and cheaper health insurance coverage FORBID FOR PROFIT HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES to be part of the system.)

It is sad to see that the issues of end of life counseling and withholding of medical treatment for cost reasons have been co-mingled and confused. It is true that "Death Panels" of a sort exist as part of the current system. The question is, would the bill currently under consideration improve or exacerbate that problem. Without going on and on about it let me simply quote Ezekiel Emanuel, Pres. O's Health Adviser. "When implemented the complete lives system produces a priority curve on which individuals aged between roughly 15 & 40 years get the most chance whereas the youngest & the oldest people get chances that are attenuated." Translation: If you are not in your most "productive" years the health care that will be available to you will be limited. We need real Health Care reform, not this bill.

Just agreeing with several of the above comments. Why in the world is the fact that insurance companies decide these things every day left out of the conversation? And they don't care what kind of discussion you have had with your doctor or family. And they don't care if your 5, 20, or 80. Once you max out, you max out. Case in point: I know a young man in his 20's with a rare form of lymphoma who has exceeded his maximum lifetime insurance payout. And now he's cutoff. How's that for a "death panel"?

will any public option pay for treatment for the mental illness that most americans clearly suffer from?

Judith - I feel your pain but had the opposite experience with my brother who had a form of brain cancer from AIDS. He was in a coma and would never have come out of it without extreme and expensive measures. I wasn't ready to see him go despite his pain. His living will and health proxy asked for ALL possible methods to be used. The MDs told me that there was a slight chance of him getting better for a short period of time (weeks to months) if we did aggressive radiation. I told them to do it and I said I would pay for it if the insurance didn't. My brother recovered and had about six weeks of conscious and meaningful life before he relapsed. Those six weeks meant the world to him and to his friends and family. We were able to complete our relationship and he was happy for the extra time and said so. He got to eat corn-beef sandwiches and drink egg creams, he got to go on the balcony and have the sun on his face and the wind on his cheek a few last times. And he got a few hundred more hugs and kisses from the many people who loved him. He also got to see the Thank You card that Elizabeth Taylor sent him for raising money for her Aids organization. Other countries have rationing, but this is America - no Kings or dictators (Czars) can tell us what to do.

It's depressing, but I think as a nation we will probably deal with our health care system the way we deal with our health issues as (many) patients. Instead of doing sensible things like eating right and exercise when we have minor issues, we exercise our "freedom" to eat and do whatever we want, when we want. Hey, we can always pop pills or wait until we need major surgery. If we let our emotions be manipulated so easily then we deserve the system we get. There is nothing wrong with debating the pros and cons of various aspects of all the bills to ensure fiscal responsibility. However when words like "death panel", "evil", "Nazi", "euthanasia" are shouted, it's very hard to have a meaningful discussion.

As for big government, I wonder if there was such loud debate when the Interstate system was built. That certainly qualifies as big government. And we Americans revere our car culture. What would we do without those roads??

R.I.P., U.S.A.

If this is your belief set: that the scary liberals are trying to set up "death panels" to pull the plug on your grandma, you're not a part of reality and you're not a part of that "informed populace" that is vital for mainstaining a real democracy.

Sarah Palin is not a patriot, she's a liar. She's a liar with a public voice, so her lies influence thousands, if not millions. Lying to the American people isn't patriotic and Palin's insistance on the supposed plans for "death panels" amounts to lies. Not ignorance, not a misunderstanding, an out and out fabrication.

This sort of nonsense gets "equal time" and it's not equal information. The levels of hysteria in this country are unbelievably high and it's all based on a proven ignoramous' lies.

I'm horrified that real people are actually going along with this.

PS -- why doesn't WNYC post Sarah's statement for all to read for themselves? If it was one liberal saying something bad about Bush, Cheney or Rove, there would be a link put up on Brian’s page in two seconds.

I have been in the medical field for eleven years. Never did I learn as much as I did when my mother's illness led her to succumb. My mother was in the hospital bi-weekly to monthly as her health deteriorated. All I can say is, a Christian hospital and an Episcopal counselor know nothing on advising a family of the approaching death of a family member. They leave much to be desired and I hope no one encounters the pressure of signing off on a living will in order to free up a hospital bed.

PS - Sarah Palin is getting 200 comments an hour on Facebook concerning her "Death Panel" post - almost all of them positive. Her fan base has grown about 50,000 in the past week or two. Can you say "Madame President?" Practice, unfortunately you have until 2012, unless there is an earlier impeachment. Can you say "no authentic birth certificate?"

Go get'em "longstreet" and Ed. I need a little help straightening out these fussy thinking leftists. We need to protect them from themselves. They are frightened people and can't think on their own. Therefore they think they need a death czar to make decisions for them.

I was a medical social worker with a children's rehabilation program for many years. I would like to share one example of problems with private coverage from a major HMO a parent had through her employment. This occurred in the mid 90s. The young child had a seizure disorder. As a result of the course of treatment by a panel physician and hospital, the child became profoundly handicapped and retarded. The plan initially rejected the request for prior approval for equipment including a wheelchair for this nonambulatory child despite it being a covered service in the contract. Only when I confronted the casemanager at the company on the telephone with the facts, did I obtain the preapproval which had been denied on the written request from the physician. Thus, private insurance does not save individuals from withholding of benefits unless they are assertive, knowledgable or have an advocate.

I think the 'Death Panel' needs to be looked at a little more through the lens of estate planning, given the ties of the private health insurance industry to the financial industry, than might be discussed so far.
Since the insurance companies are so tied in with the financial investment companies, I think the argument for a part of the government providing the option for helping citizens to decide if they want to plan for a Living Will, etc., should be seen also, in terms of people understanding that this is to help them plan their options for preserving what they would like to pass onto their family, friends, etc.., in case of illness, death, and accident.
The rich have always planned for their death, and other misfortunes, so in a day and age when more people in this country have investments, the planning of one's estate in case of a medical emergency should be considered a neccessity of financial literacy.
I can see why this would come up as a priority of the Obama administration, since blacks in this country, traditionally have less capital to pass onto their heirs, etc.. for a number of reasons.
Given what has recently happened in the market and with the banks, if the decision to plan for ones' care taking for medical circumstances were explained with those concerns in mind, I think a lot more people, both minority and many middle class taxpayers, would have less of an exclusively emotionally driven response, especially given recent events. The families of those who are so sick, need to know how to stay financially stable while, and after, these tragedies have already happened, and plan beforehand for the reality beforehand, that they unfortunately do. And my family knows from more than twenty years of experience, so I do not say this without a full heart as well as mind.

Why are liberals and the media so afraid of Sarah Palin? Perhaps they know something that they didn’t tell the American people during the 2008 campaign - Sarah drew gigantic crowds often rivaling Obama and her crowds were spontaneous, without rock stars performing (a feature of numerous Obama rallies) and without union members or ACORN zombies being bused to the event. Sarah would draw 10 -15,000 people to a town of 3,000. She often drew crowds as large as 25 - 35,000. This was rarely reported by the mainstream and liberal media.

Sarah Palin’s coining a phrase like “Death Panel” is no better or worse then the liberals’ creation of the phrase “Assault Rifle” to describe 100s of models of regular hunting and target rifles that have been in popular use for over 100 years. The liberals demonized a normal part of American culture for political gain. Now a leading conservative is using a catch phrase to defend the American way of live (no pun intended). The liberals are just afraid that her phrase is going to catch on because it summarizes one of the many bad elements of all the Obamacare plans.

Easy with the Down Syndrome commentary. 350,000 persons in the US living with Down Syndrome.

good discussion here. Anyone who thinks that healthcare decisions are not already heavily influenced by financial means is kidding themselves. Reform is not going to change that.

What's missing from this conversation is the fact that private insurers are already making the very same cost/benefit analyses regarding end-of-life care as the proposed government plan would. We should be asking whether we would prefer a for-profit entity doing this counseling, or a public entity?

This whole debate presents the doctor as a personally engaged, humane counsellor as opposed to the heartless bureaucracy of government. But as matters stand now, the sort of statistical calculation your guest just described as in the very nature of government, that is precisely the basis of many (most?) medical decisions right now. Insurance companies have guidelines for hospitals based on statistics as to how many lives will be saved versus how expensive a given treatment is. Hospitals only provide insured MRI's for conditions approved by insurers, for example. If a patient wants an MRI that isn't covered, he or she must pay.

The Know-Nothings of the Sarah Palin ilk rave socialism socialism SOCIALISM!

Just what do they think socialism is? We have public roads, public water, public police forces, public national defense. Is that socialism? It costs a lot of money. Defense alone costs a great deal more than Medicare.

So would Sarah Palin endorse a privatized water, roads, defense? We could go back to the primitive protection rackets of the mob or the Middle Ages.

Also we should move away from the idea of hospitals as places where people should end up when they're clearly at the end of life. No one wants to die hooked up to machines. Hospitals are in the job of keeping people alive so they do everything to prevent death -- which is fine when you're 40 but may not be the best when you're 90. We should return to the idea of a dignified, compassionate death in a palliative hospice environment.

My mother has a living will and she lives in a skilled nursing facility at independent/assisted living facility and we are constantly reminding the nursing staff there what her wishes are. They are constantly looking for ways to maximize the fees that they can get from medicare. She is in the late stages of Alzheimers. She is well fed and clean and comfortable. It is really frustrating to deal with the nursing staff and the doctors who are nothing more than drug dispensary!

These decisions are made inevitably. They can be made after discussing the options or they can be made without discussion. I'd rather not have them made implicitly, but with open honest thought.

Is there evidence that countries with lower end-of-life health care costs hold different attitudes towards death and talking about death with their families.

It seems in America we expect to trudge on forever and blame the government when it reminds us that we won't

..Yes the government has interest in keeping costs down, but so do private health insurance companies.

Most hospitals require a copy of a living will when you schedule surgery. A few years ago I needed non-elective but not life threatening surgery,and I had to give them my Living Will when I checked in for the procedure. So the hyperbole surrounding this is completely irresponsible.

As may already have been mentioned, the glaring fact is that so-called 'death panels' already exist. They're called Private Health Insurance.

Insurers are making decisions that affect not just end of life but everything beforehand.

Health insurers are making medical decisions when they deny treatment options, deny coverage for emergency room visits, deny deny deny.

All those denials add up to a denial of treatment that can prolong life, in many cases for comparatively little cost. But Health Insurers don't care how much it costs, they simply don't want to pay for it -- whatever it is.

My sister just died in a hospital in florida. My brother and I had to make the decision to take her off life support. The doctor would not confide in me whether she would die or not, not would he discuss it with my sister. He was too afraid of being sued. He said he doesn't discuss death. Should medicare cover the costs of my sister being kept alive artificially? I think a conversation with a reputable doctor would help.

This happens every day so what’s the problem now…
Check your workman’s comp and see how much a lost finger or lost limb is worth and know heroic efforts may not be made to save them under your company’s insurance. See how much money an HMO is willing to pay out for costly procedures on a terminally ill or 80+ year old infirmed person and a 20 year old expected to make a full recovery.
Our current system is predicated on a cost value analysis when it comes to managed care. Many private insurers have end of life counseling available because they know that’s when the bottom line bleeds money.

ed & longstreet

do u care about those babys after they are born

Here is something not being raised enough in the COSTS of healthcare debate: I was working full time was laid off and am now working long-term contract w/o health insurance doing the same job at a competitor of my previous employer. As a contract worker I do not get health insurance—BUT, I am getting paid twice, I repeat, twice my previous salary after taxes. My question to all the do nothing folks out their to consider is, Have we spent enough time considering the effects health insurance has on keeping salaries stagnant?

Why don't you both wait for Brian's show to begin and see what the guest has to say? Instead, you poison the debate with your angry comments.

I couldn't have said it better myself. The promotion of abortion and the greasing of the skids toward euthanasia in these bills are deal breakers, makes them unacceptable. We desperately need health care reform, please make a bill abortion and euthanasia free so we can move toward health care reform.

In America 2009, "first do no harm" is to be replaced with "first prepare a cost-benefit analysis."
One million abortions annually (35% of which are to black women) doesn't quench the bloodlust, apparently. Should we add in the Latina abortion rate, as well? How many of the dead would've been "wise latinas?" Maybe Sonia will enlighten us one day. Until then, keep trafficking in those fetuses.
Eugenics, anyone?
But back to the health care debate, it's now going to be pop a pill and check out, pops. Just ask Mr. Teleprompter. Remember, he's going to counsel his daughter to abort his owm grandchild, after all, so she's not punished for her mistake. (Rick Pitino, there's a czar-ship in-waiting for you, pal.)
Talk about inconvenient truths.
Sicko, anyone?
Wake up, lefties. You are on the road to nowhere, presently and eternally.
Fortunately, it's never too late to repent and change your ways. Faith, hope and love will always, ALWAYS, triumph mankind's temporal delusions.