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Friday, March 29, 2024 - 02:37 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

Remember the discussion of “Death Panels” when Obama and the Democrats were passing and implementing Obamacare? Members of Congress claimed to have removed the provisions from the law. Others denied the provision was in the law. They simply moved it around and changed the name. The “Death Panel” is now called the Independent Payment Advisory Board or IPAB.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin gave the name to the panel more than 5-years ago. She was ridiculed. It is now reality and most people don’t know what is happening.

WND reported that the Supreme Court has ordered the Administration to respond to a lawsuit brought by the Goldwater Institute that challenges the constitutionality of Obamacare. The Court has directed the Administration to present its case in support of IPAB by January 21, 2015.

The Administration previously had declined to offer comments on the case, which according to the Obamacare Law is “unanswerable to Congress and unaccountable to the federal courts.”

In a commentary published in the Wall Street Journal, Rep. Phil Roe and Sen. Tom Coburn, both medical doctors, described IPAB as, “a patient’s nightmare and bad for doctors.”

Some of the comments by Roe and Coburn follow:

“Why is this board dangerous? Because there is nothing ‘advisory’ about it’s vast powers. IPAB’s mandate is to deliver on one of Obamacare’s central promises: Medicare cost containment.”

“The law gives this board sweeping authority to do so, with virtually no constraints. The statute says IPAB can take any and all actions necessary to control Medicare costs. Although it is prohibited from ‘rationing,’ the term is nowhere defined in the Affordable Care Act. Hence, IPAB can control costs by lowering physician reimbursements – thus driving more doctors away from treating Medicare patients – or by reducing the services eligible for reimbursement. In other words, by rationing care.”

Rationing of care is what gave the panels the name “Death Panels.” If doctors are unable to provide a lifesaving service at a price they require to stay in business, the service will not be provided and some patients will die.

“The IPAB board will consist of 15 members appointed by the President, all of whom may be from the same party. If the President does not nominate anyone to the board, or if the Senate fails to confirm nominees, IPAB’s powers must be unilaterally exercised by the Health and Human Services secretary. In short, the power to alter Medicare potentially can be consolidated in a single individual,” the two doctors wrote in the Journal.

WND has published an extensive list of lawmakers who oppose the death panels. Unfortunately, none are from the South Carolina Delegation.

Darcy Olsen, President of the Goldwater Institute that has taken the case to the Supreme Court, said it is important for the Court to take the case. If Congress passes a law deleting the panel, Obama will just refuse to sign it into law.

“We don’t have time to wait for another president to be elected. If the Independent Payment Advisory Board isn’t stopped before it has a chance to put recommendations in place, it will be too late,” Olsen said.

This is one of several legal challenges to Obamacare. That will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.

President Obama is going to spend the next two years using the courts, executive rulings and Executive Orders to circumvent the Congress and the American People and become a one-man dictator. As free American citizens, we must not allow that to happen.

If we are to survive the next two years with some of our freedom intact, we must communicate clearly and forcefully with our members of Congress.

 

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