During the debate over health care reform, Sarah Palin and others successfully convinced a lot of Americans that the bill included sneaky “death panel” provisions that allow government bureaucrats to make life-and-death decisions.<\/p>\n
It was, in a word, baloney.<\/p>\n
But as we’ve learned in the last two weeks, death panels really do exist..\u00a0 It’s called the marketplace.<\/p>\n
When the state of Arizona stopped subsidizing organ transplants for poor patients, some very sick people were thrown back on the free market.<\/p>\n
In future, those Arizonans who can pay will live.\u00a0 Many of those who can’t pay will die. This from the New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most difficult discussions are those that involve patients who had been on the donor list for a year or more and now we have to tell them they\u2019re not on the list anymore,\u201d said Dr. Rainer Gruessner, a transplant specialist at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.<\/p>\n \u201cThe frustration is tremendous. It\u2019s more than frustration.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Times stories recounts how one donated liver — which had been intended for a 32-year-0ld father named Francisco Felix — went instead to a patient who could fork over $200,000.<\/p>\n \u201cI know times are tight and cuts are needed, but you can\u2019t cut human lives,\u201d said Mr. Felix\u2019s wife, Flor. \u201cYou just can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n