Not the sick or old who will be euthanized by the Government because they are an "inconvenience", nor the ones who will die because some Government bureaucrat decides their treatment isn’t "cost-effective". Also not those who will die because their treatment is rationed. Not even the children who will be aborted because their mothers will be "legally required" to terminate them.
No, I weep for those who will die because of the "Death Panels" of executives, lobbyists and politicians who are in the pay of the insurance and drug companies, who already knowingly allow others to die in order to protect their highly lucrative industry profits.
(Follow me over the fold...)
There is incontrovertible evidence that people are dying every day because the US (despite being the richest country in the world), has over 45 million uninsured, millions more who are under-insured, and many others who don’t know that their insurance may be denied to them when they really need it. An insurance company which denies coverage to patients who really need it is truly a Death Panel. One which raises its premiums to ensure profits at the expense of its customers’ ability to pay is also, in effect, a Death Panel.
These Death panels are with us today. However, they are not a product of the White House’s proposed healthcare reforms.
So I weep:
...for all those who will die because their potentially life-saving treatment was deemed "experimental, and therefore not covered by their insurance.
... for all those who will die because the insurance for which they’ve paid years of premiums is arbitrarily and ruthlessly canceled when they get really sick.
... for all the veterans who will die due to inadequate health care, because our wars have unlimited funds but the VA is underfunded.
... for those who can’t afford insurance, and so will die because they routinely don’t go to the doctor early enough to adequately treat a life-threatening condition.
... for all the elderly who will be left to die in institutions because the Government won’t adequately fund their care.
There are many, many people – including those who yell and scream at Town Hall meetings, those in the media who propagate the lies about either the current reality or the proposed legislation, and those politicians who accept the funds of the corporate lobbyists trying to suppress that legislation – who must know that the inevitable consequence of their actions is that many thousands of people who might live will die. Perhaps that’s not exactly murder (in a strictly legal sense), but it is surely moral manslaughter, and it is certainly wrong by any ethical code I can understand.
I hope they can sleep at night.
~ Trendar.