[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/26/art.palinwave0726.gi.jpg caption="On her final day in office, Republican expressed a range of views about Gov. Palin's political future."] (CNN) - Sarah Palin is accusing President Obama’s health care plan of looking to create a “death panel” that would weigh whether her parents or son Trig were “worthy of health care.”
"Americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized health care plan that the current administration is rushing through Congress, our collective jaw is dropping, and we’re saying not just no, but hell no!" the former Alaska governor said in a post on her Facebook page late Friday.
In one of her first public policy statements since leaving office late last month, Palin discounted the administration’s view that the president’s plan would cut health care costs. The only path to lower costs, she said, was less treatment.
"And who will suffer the most when they ration care?" she wrote. "The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."
Conservatives - including Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who Palin references in her post - have pointed to a provision in the House health care bill that calls for “advance care planning consultation.” The measure would make available to individuals the option of a consultation with a medical provider who would explain “advance care planning,” if they have not met with a senior medical practitioner within the previous five years. These sessions would be an optional benefit, and would not be mandatory under the legislation.
During these consultations, the doctor would answer questions about care, suggest other professionals to speak with, and offer an explanation of the legal definitions of living wills, powers of attorney and the role of a health care proxy. The doctor would also provide a list of national and state resources devoted to assisting individuals and families with advance care planning; inform people of existing end-of-life services like hospice care, and what sorts of financial benefits are available to help them take advantage of that support; and explain the meaning of different orders that relate to life-sustaining treatment.
The White House has not commented on Palin’s statement, which also takes aim at bioethicist Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
Palin spent most of the past week in New York City with her family, sightseeing and meeting with her book publisher.
Typical fear tactics... it's so sad. What the "millions of Americans who are concerned" (the ones yelling at town meetings instead of listening) aren't admitting is that a "death panel" already exists for millions MORE Americans who have no health care. Period. Please, Sarah. Trig is safe and can get therapy because you're middle class. Go sell that crap to someone on welfare with a DS child who can't even get him a check-up. She makes me sick. Hey! But that's okay... I have insurance. Luckily, only other middle class people have an internet connection and can read her stupid posts. So those who are currently at the mercy of ERs and handouts are safe.
The reasons Palin quit as governor of Alaska were to focus on her family and because of the media attention on her family, so as soon as the opportunity arises, she's using her disabled infant son as a prop to make a dishonest political statement about the president's health plan.
Hypocrite.
Palin clearly has niotvread or doesn't understand what is in the proposed legislation. She also should leave her grandson out of the debate.
I've got news for her, the insurance companies are rationing care right now. They have a rescission board that reviews cases and if the case is going to be costly to the insurance company they find any way they can to drop the insured. People who develop breast cancer and other life threatening illnesses have been dropped and they die. It is happening now.
Unreal, republicans. This woman is your new hero?
Fear tactics. I have a disabled child too. I welcome the support the Obama administration will provide.
and i can see russia from my back window. look at her decisions/her family decisions and you see why this "lady" needs to go fishing-and stay there. remember, "the economy is fine" a couple weeks before the election-as the country was going down the drain. wow-but she stays in the news with all her "problems".
And just think, she would have been a heartbeat away from becoming president. What an ignorant statement which shows she has read nor comprehended the health legislation. In fact, the "Living Will" portion is just that, "for the Living!" If she checks out the facts, this portion was introduced by Republicans....geez!
There she goes again using her children for a political drive/point. Honestly, if she would stop including her personal family business into her political agenda/points, people would leave her family alone. However, she allows them to target, something she knows very well (Hunter Sarah).
This just goes to show everyone that Sarah Palin does not comprehend things that are put into words, word that form coherent sentences, sentences that make paragraphs, paragraphs that create legislation... because she is illiterate.
Therefore, she simply creates unfounded lies in her mind that sound like they would scare her illiterate followers into agreeing with her, manifesting in angry shouting mobs at town hall meetings.
Regardless of your views, 'Death Panel' is an incredibly powerful way to describe the way in which Healthcare will be regulated. I expect we will hear much more of this tag in the months to come...
As usual Palin does not know what the hell she's talking about. I have excellent medical insurance and I'm happy with it. However, there are 48 million Americans who don't have insurance of anykind. The majority of them Working Americans. You so called Americans who call yourselves Christians you should think of others not just yourselves. Everyone deserves health care.
Oh god, how dare this godless liberal inject Sarah Palin's kids into the media!!!!!
Oh, wait...
she's clearly lost what was left of her marbles now
'Leave my children out of it" Palin once again using her disabled child for her own agenda.
no surprise. this woman will sensationalize anything to get her noticed. she is a terrorist of a different kind and just as scary as a car bomber.
All I'll say if this is how Sarah Palin (and her kind) 'read' such DEATH PANELS as being created by this proposed health bill, then I suggest she has more problems with her ability to process written information than I had previously thought possible. Now, will someone PLEASE show her the way to the exit.
If Sarah says it, it is true in my book. She has nothing to gain since she is on no ones payroll. The sneakiness of the Washington Beaurocrats will be revealed.
She's GOT insurance and does not have to change...Trig is in no danger!!
She just doesn't want to have to help pay for someone else's "Trig"...
BTW...on which page did she read about this panel?
I really doubt she sat and read the whole plan and drew her own conclusions! I'm sure she was given talking points! I also wonder how many people actually take her seriously!!
So here she goes again, standing behind a lie and irresponsibly leading with her chin. What job can sensitive little Sarah quit when people start ganging up on Palin for this nonsense and hitting back hard? She has no role! Or maybe she'll threaten to sue anyone who criticizes her and cry on Limbaugh's shoulder. Why is this thing always in front of us?
And who's using her chihldren for political purposes now? You can't have it both ways...villifying the press for going after her kids and then using the press and your kids to 'trash" the attempt to reform the health care system. Using your kids and scare tactics didn't work in the 2008 election process, and it won't work now. Except for your dedicated 20% base.
The stupidity of this person is beyond commentary.
To knowingly go out and spread false information, and to again use her kids for political moves... but hey! Don't talk about her kids!
More conservative nonsense. She does not know nor does anyone know what is in the bill. People, it has not been written yet. I wish CNN would not give Palin any press time. She is not relevant to any discussion.
She is insane. I am sick of the lies she and her crooked party spread. The bill is online. Download it. READ IT! My opinion of the GOP gets lower and lower every time she opens her mouth.
I just can't believe that anyone continues to give credence to this woman. This just shows the amount of ignorance and idiocy in our society in 2009.