I wanted to post something that is garnering headlines on some websites and blogs because I feel this is not getting enough attention from the mainstream media (probably because they rather pretend this never happened).
New York Times columnist and self-proclaimed liberal economist Paul Krugman vehemently denied on several occasions, including on March 21 (the day the health care reform legislation was passed) that the health care reform would include death panels. After the passage of the health care reform legislation Krugman appears (at least to the ears of several people) to have reversed his tune by stating how these advisory panels, which he apparently referred to as “death panels” earlier in this interview, would be a major cost savings. Here is the video of Krugman’s comments:
I’m not sure whether Krugman misspoke, is misinformed, or is telling the truth. It’s possible that he misspoke, but the host should have jumped in there to make sure Krugman clarified his position. Media Matters, a left-wing blog covering the media, vehemently denies that Krugman was confirming that death panels (that he was just speaking about them tongue-in-cheek).
I’ve heard a lot about death panels in the past so I decided to check out the health care legislation to see for myself whether such things are called for in the health care bill.
The actual health care legislation that was turned into law does not appear to call for “death panels”. HR 3590 Section 3403 (which is now law) describes what the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) (formerly known as the Independent Medicare Advisory Board and “death panel” by critics) can and cannot do. The IPAB’s purpose is the following:
‘(b) Purpose- It is the purpose of this section to, in accordance with the following provisions of this section, reduce the per capita rate of growth in Medicare spending
The clause says that the IPAB’s objective is to reduce the amount of Medicare spending for the average person. How can this be achieved? A clause a little bit later in Section 3403 outlines what the IPAB can and cannot do to achieve cost savings:
‘(ii) The proposal shall not include any recommendation to ration health care, raise revenues or Medicare beneficiary premiums under section 1818, 1818A, or 1839, increase Medicare beneficiary cost-sharing (including deductibles, coinsurance, and copayments), or otherwise restrict benefits or modify eligibility criteria.
If you take the clause at face value it does not appear the government will permit this panel to decide who is going to live and who is going to die (whether the panel actually stays faithful to the law in practice is a big IF). The panel is going to look for ways to achieve cost savings by improving efficiency (whether they can actually achieve that is a big IF since the government is not exactly the model of efficiency).
I am an opponent of the health care legislation, but I do not see why people are still claiming there are death panels after I reviewed the legislation. Perhaps there is something in the health care legislation that I’m missed, so if you have any idea where death panels or something like them are being hinted at let me know or post a comment. Nevertheless, until Krugman clarifies what he said in this interview people are going to be wondering whether there will actually be death panels, including me.
