Former Obama advisor, Steve Rattner, calls for Death Panels, rationing for the elderly
Photo credit: Daphne Borowski
A former Obama administration official, Steve Rattner, wrote an intense op-ed for the NY Times back on September 16 titled “Beyond Obamacare,” beginning the article: We Need Death Panels.
In June, research in Britain revealed the failures of their universal plans and the effects on the elderly – Read more on that here
Rattner details the effects of Sarah Palin on the reform and how Paul Ryan’s plan doesn’t go far enough.
Most notably, President Obama’s estimable Affordable Care Act regrettably includes severe restrictions on any reduction in Medicare services or increase in fees to beneficiaries. In 2009, Sarah Palin’s rant about death panels even forced elimination from the bill of a provision to offer end-of-life consultations.
Now, three years on, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, Paul D. Ryan, has offered his latest ambitious plan for addressing the Medicare problem. But like Mr. Obama’s, it holds limited promise for containing the program’s escalating costs within sensible boundaries.
Critics are halted by the bloutness from the former Obama advisor.
Let’s not forget that with the elderly population growing rapidly, even if cost increases for each beneficiary can be contained, Medicare would still claim a rising share of the American economy.
Rattner continues:
Medicare needs to take a cue from Willie Sutton, who reportedly said he robbed banks because that’s where the money was. The big money in Medicare is not to be found in Mr. Ryan’s competition or Mr. Obama’s innovation, but in reducing the cost of treating people in the last year of life, which consumes more than a quarter of the program’s budget.
No one wants to lose an aging parent. And with price out of the equation, it’s natural for patients and their families to try every treatment, regardless of expense or efficacy. But that imposes an enormous societal cost that few other nations have been willing to bear. Many countries whose health care systems are regularly extolled — including Canada, Australia and New Zealand — have systems for rationing care.
Nicknamed the “car czar” Rattner served in the Obama administration on the GM and Chrysler bailouts before moving to the role of Counselor to the United States Secretary of the Treasury and lead auto adviser.
