IPAB = "Death Trap"

IPAB suddenly under the spotlight
POSTED AT 9:36 AM ON APRIL 20, 2011 BY ED MORRISSEY

In his speech last week, Barack Obama pledged to curtail health-care spending by giving more power to the Independent Physicians Advisory Board (IPAB), an unelected 15-member panel appointed by the President. Opponents of ObamaCare have had their sights fixed on the IPAB as a care-rationing board since the summer of 2009, while the media and many politicians in Congress downplayed their power. With Obama’s pledge, though, it’s suddenly cool in Washington to take a second look at the IPAB (via Stanley Kurtz at The Corner):

Even without the “death panels” connotation, this arrangement should offend anyone who believes in accountable government. The Constitution provides checks and balances between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, but provides Congress with most of those checks due to its nature as the “people’s branch” of government. Placing an unelected panel in charge of spending decisions that Congress only can veto — and doing that through the executive branch rather than the legislative branch — offends the very nature of separation of powers. The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse, not the President, and the IPAB turns that on its head.

Furthermore, Obama’s promise does push the IPAB further into “death panel” territory because of the nature of its mandate. It’s not an Independent Accountant Advisory Board, looking for bad fiscal practices to clean up. The IPAB exists to determine what kind of health services Medicare should and should not provide as a way to save money. That inevitably means that significant numbers of people on Medicare won’t get the care they desire, and thanks to the single-payer system and the fact that the government has already taken the money for those premiums, most of those will have little choice but to suffer more and die more quickly as a result. Obama’s pledge to strengthen their power to make those cuts makes the issue even more urgent.

Obama blasted Paul Ryan’s plan to transform Medicare into a voucher plan as somehow un-American, but at least Ryan’s plan would allow seniors to find other insurance if coverage for their care got denied. Even liberal Rep. Pete Stark sees the difference:

And that’s exactly what the Wall Street Journal sees, too:

So the question is this. Do we trust seniors with the decisions for their own care, or do we trust hundreds of millions of those decisions each year to 15 unelected, unassailable bureaucrats in Washington DC? Obama may have made a very large mistake in reopening this political Pandora’s Box in a thoroughly ill-advised speech.

 

Le's not overlook the potential, actually make that certainty, for corruption. This death panel will be appointed by obama, the same guy who has given waivers from his plan to hundreds of well-connected unions and companies. Do you really think they won't favor a treatment being pushed by say, GE, at the expense of something provided by someone who is not a supporter? Or that obama's constituencies, eg wlefare mothers, illegals, won;t be favored over middle class seniors?

People would have to be crazy to turn their health care over to these products of Boss Daley's Chicago and their corrurpt political machine.

 

The waiver list is now at 1,168 for businesses, insurers, unions and other organizations.

 

We need the SCOTUS to rule Odumbocare "unconstitutional" and start over.

We also need some legislation RESTRICTING THE POWERS AND AUTHORITY OF THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH... Since Bush and now Odumbo, the Executive Branch has been on a crusade to acquire power such as to make the presidency effectively a dictatorship.

 

You are absolutely right. And Congress has just been rolling over and letting it happen.