Real Death Panels

August 25, 2009

Death panels aren't coming in health care legislation — they're already here.

As reported by Salon.com, Americans United for Change has launched a TV ad turning the tables on the debunked charge made up by opponents of health insurance reform.

The spot features Dr. Linda Peeno, a former medical director at Humana Insurance and Blue Cross/Blue Shield who has since turned whistleblower.

"In the spring of 1987, as a physician, I denied a man a necessary operation that would have saved his life and thus caused his death," Peeno says in the ad. "I am haunted by the thousands of pieces of paper on which I have written that deadly word, 'denial.'"

Be sure to check out another Salon article on death panels: "The 'Death Panels' Are Already Here." Writer Mike Madden shows, contrary to charges by Sarah Palin and others who prefer not to bother with facts, that private companies are already rationing care, with sometimes fatal results.