What Are Death Panels?
Recently President Barack Obama announced a plan to reduce the federal deficit, seeking to increase savings for Medicare through “Partnership for Patients,” which attempts to lessen illnesses contracted by patients during surgery or hospitalization.
In addition, the plan also attempts to accelerate the availability of generic biological medications as well as allow Medicare to negotiate for lower costs for some prescription drugs. Only in the pharmaceutical industry are such proposals controversial.
Independent Payment Advisory Board Health Care Impact
The part of the plan that may not be received favorably by some is the call to broaden the power of the Independent Payment Advisory Board. The Independent Payment Advisory Board is made up of fifteen experts in the healthcare field that have been appointed by President Obama, as well as three officials from the Department of Health and Human Services.
The board was established by the healthcare reform law to restrict the continuing increases in Medicare costs. If costs rise too rapidly, the board will have to recommend methods to further reduce expenditures. In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services will have to implement these methods unless an alternative is chosen by Congress.
The White House released a fact sheet indicating that the president is interested in reducing the cost of the Independent Payment Advisory Board by tightening the hold on spending growth. The Independent Payment Advisory Board would also be able to consider a broad range of strategies for holding down costs and improving care quality.
Critics from Republican circles have referred to the Independent Payment Advisory Board as a “death panel” because they determine the medical procedures to be covered based on cost alone. This could be considered “death panels 2.0″ because, as you may recall, the original usage of the term “death panel” was based on doctors who could bill Medicare for patient counseling related to end-of-life options.
If these reports are factual, providing the Independent Payment Advisory Board with even more power could be an incredibly bad idea.
photo credit: AN HONORABLE GERMAN
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