Remember "death panels" from the debates over health care reform? That's how opponents of national health care reform labeled a provision that would have compensated doctors for counseling their Medicare patients about end-of life decisions such as advanced directives and living wills. This reasonable and common-sense provision was removed from the Affordable Care Act because of the furor created by politically motivated misrepresentation.
Now we have the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), and the "death panel" rhetoric has started up again.
