It occurs to me that death panels have been hard at work in the U.S. health care system for quite some time. These panels tell you which procedures you can have and which one’s you can’t, in spite of what your doctor tells you. These panels tell you what your insurance company will pay for and what it won’t, in spite of what your doctor says you need. These panels will turn you away and watch you die.

These panels exist in

the highly insulated structure of health insurance companies. They make life or death decisions every day. They deny care to the dying. They force your doctor to spend hours negotiating on your behalf so that you can get the treatment you need. These panels are responsible to the insurance companies to spend only what is necessary, and to engage in whatever cold, callous, compassionless tactics they can to make sure the company’s bottom line is met.

They deny you care. They deny you procedures because their "experts" say the procedure is "experimental". They make decisions about you, your health and your life without even having met you. They will cut you off in the bat of an eye, and will leave you to suffer on the street if you have a pre-existing condition.

And people have died because of it.

There are death panels in America right now. Operating every day. Making life and death decisions about people every day. People just like you.

And no one–no one–in Congress, or the media, says boo about it.

Because life is still a lot less valuable than the corporate bottom line. Life is a still a lot less valuable than advertising to keep a teevee show on the air. Life is a lot less valuable than having your pockets stuffed full with heavy duty green.

The death panels are here. The death panels are now.

And that’s the deal.

© 2009, Mac Williams. All rights reserved.

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