(CNN) - Sarah Palin is returning to the two words widely credited with helping to spur angry town-halls on health care reform over the summer: "death panels."
In a Facebook post over the weekend, the former Alaska governor launched into a torrent of criticism about the recently-passed House health care reform bill, including the notion "bureaucratic panels" will ultimately decide who lives and who dies.
"We had been told there were no 'death panels' in the bill either," Palin wrote in the post. "But look closely at the provision mandating bureaucratic panels that will be calling the shots regarding who will receive government health care."
Palin initially backed the death panel claim early last August in comments that sparked many of her supporters, and critics of the health care reform bill as a whole, to publicly express their disapproval at heated town-hall forums across the country.
The words "death panel" are nowhere to be found in the bill, but the phrase soon became among the most searched on Google, and President Obama directly rebutted Palin's claim a week later.
In her recent Facebook post, Palin didn't offer further evidence of the establishment of death panels. The non-partisan FactCheck.org has refuted her argument.
"The fact remains that the bill wouldn't require patients to receive counseling sessions, nor would it require a doctor to offer one. Rather, it modifies Section 1861(s)2 of the Social Security Act, defining what services Medicare will pay for. So if a patient receives a counseling session from a doctor or health care practitioner, he or she doesn't have to pay for it – Medicare will," the organization wrote.
From CNN Politics
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Silly Sarah is back!
Sarah Palin is a threat to our society. Stop giving her a platform from which to spew her idiotic filth.
Hey quitter, you are an idiot. Shut the heck up and get lost!
That being said I already have a death panel in place. It's called a living will. You and your repug friends are too stupid to see it as just that.
I can't even comment on it. When's the swimsuit competition?
Could a death panel TAKE CARE of that woman ??? That would be most welcome.
There are three factions fighting for the leadership in the GOP; the right wingnuts (made up of Palin, Armey, DeMint, Bachmann, Inhoufe, Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity etc), the lugnuts (made up of Mc Cain, Pence, Boehner, Cantor, etc) and the nimrods (made up of Bush, Cheney, Rove, etc).
None of the options looks very good, though.
Death panels have existed for years. They're called "insurance companies." They take your money, charge you an outrageous amount and then actively look for ways to NOT pay a claim. How many people have suffered because the insurance company wouldn't pay for surgery even though the individual had bought medical insurance? How many times has someone died because the insurance company wouldn't pay for extended care even though the individual had paid his premiums?
Insurance companies ARE death panels. Palin really doesn't have a clue.
It barely passed the house. It will not get passed in the Senate.
We need reform, but this is not it. This will kill the insurance industry, put millions out of work, and possibly bankrupt our country.
This dummy represents the hopes and dreams of the GOP? I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Bureaucrats who will determine what care you can get?
Oh, she means like Republicans who insisted on the amendment barring women who receive a government subsidy to pay for for their healthcare plan from using that healthcare plan to seek abortions.
Oh, like those bureaucrats. Got it.
Palin can see Russia from her backyard. This is not a smart woman.
To put forth such an outrageous notion that the health bill equates to a "death panel" shows that Mrs. Palin underestimates the ability of the American people to see through her tactics of trying to instill fear into ordinary citizens to advance her own political agenda!
Mrs Palin should realize by now that the electorate has realized that her grasp of issues is quite virtually non-existent. This is the same woman who has critized the press to no end and now has agreed to speak at the upcoming Press dinner which coincides with the relase of her book.
Sarah has but one agenda! Her own!!
Why Sarah, why, why do you lie?
Yeah well, Palin is a twit. Ignore her.
I routinely post on Sarah Facebook page. Trying to correct the information given there. It is scarey to see some of the stuff her followers write. Down right scarey!
This woman needs to get educated and stop her scare tactics; these have already been debunked. I have never seen such a narcissistic sore loser and who cares but her followers what she puts on her face book; I don't feel she has full knowledge to write anything let alone speak about it. This again is not for Palin but I am against anything that this administration does or attempts to do. Just another way to keep her face in the press or media.
There are many instances where programs like medi-cal or cmsp (county level) don't pay for counseling – even if the need is CAUSED by the medical treatment given that they DO pay for, for example, a patient with Hepatitis C who undergoes peg-interferon + ribavarin treatment (essentially chemotherapy) is made dog sick to CURE the virus for which the doctor will proscribe anti-depressants, like prozac or zoloft... that the program WILL pay for... but not a non-medical intervention like counseling.
Take a pill... that way big pharma sells more product.
Palin's an idiot. Since when has she EVER had facts for any of the ridiculous ramblings that fall out of her uneducated, uninformed, and un-Christian mouth?
Dear Sarah,
Insurance industry = current death panels
Signed, America
So, is CNN going to reiterate that the "death panel" claim is false, or just leave this up here as if Palin has any credibility at all and isn't lying through her teeth?
The bill is not perfect...but the death panel thing is a lie, and as journalists you should know it. Why keep giving her coverage?
Bear in mind that I am a democrat... So before you call her an idiot, a liar, whatever; have YOU read the bill yet? Then you don't know. You take some persons word for it (either side) when 99% of them haven't read the whole thing either. I hear the thing is over 1000 pages of complicated and highly interpretable lawyer wording. How fast can you read that? Don't pass judgment until you KNOW otherwise. Then have at it!
This wannabe nobody is still trying to pretend to be important. No Republican wants her anywhere near her and Americans have figured out that what comes out of Palin's mouth is primarily stupidity and lies.
Sorry Palin – no one believes in death panels except nuts like you.
Geez, really guys? Is it so hard to understand? If you read the statement from Palin herself–"mandating bureaucratic panels that will be calling the shots regarding who will receive government health care"– clearly defining her intended use of the term, it should be so obvious to you that the FactCheck you cite addresses a completely different argument. Repeating it over and over doesn't make it relevant or valid. Palin used inciteful terms, but to dscribe something she feels is. Many agree, that a government that has that decision making power is unacceptable.
She is right. All of the liberals lied. First they said it did not exist. Then they took out the language, then they put it back in. Liberals all lie. Obama one and done,
Now if she would only return to Alaska....don't the people of the USA deserve better than these partisan lies and distortions – from both sides of the House?
If she isn't careful, Ms. Palin could give beauty contestants a bad name. And, did we ever get an answer as to which newspapers reads?
Just like O'Reilly, it is just amazing how someone who says something untrue, the facts prove it to be so, and then instead of shutting up, they go repeating it. And worse, these folks have followers! Like the line in the movie Life Of Brian, where one asks another "Are you sure he's the Messiah ?" To which the reply was "Oh I'm sure, and I should know, I've followed a few!"