The president’s goal of exerting control over Americans’ access to health care has been fighting serious headwinds. While insisting that the government would never get between “you and your doctor,” he also pointed out that the government would only pay for the “blue pill” if it had the same effect as the “red pill” but only cost half as much.

And then Sarah Palin started talking about “death panels” and things started going off the rails. The media did its best to portray “death panelists” as kooks, but for those who read the bill, this extreme claim demonstrated the arrogance of the government’s grab for our health care. Former governor Palin was referring to a section in the bill that causes Medicare to pay doctors to counsel their senior patients on Advance Planning Directives every five years.

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