As if completely non-cognizant that government in the United States is of the people, by the people, and for the people, GOP fearmongering of late has been rife with smears that health care reform will mean the setting up of governmental "death panels".
The charge is that "we the people" will inadequately fund health care to such an extent that some government bureaucracy will wind up deciding who does and does not receive care. Given $10,000 to fund $30,000 of procedures, grandma and the immigrant who mows your lawn will be left to die in lieu of some more productive member of society, the story goes.
It's all bogus, of course, but we are urged to be AFRAID of "big government". Very, very, VERY afraid.
But beyond the fact that big health insurance and hospitals right now serve as death panels in America, a key historical fact this whole smear leaves out is that, during the 1960s and 70s, actual death panels made very real decisions about who did and did not receive care. And very real people died.
After the jump, I describe these death panels and how it was so-called "big government", federally funded Medicare, that put an end to them.
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