There are people that keep talking about the provisions for end of life counseling and referring to those as “death panels”.  Those aren’t really death panels (although there is potential for the counseling to put pressure on a senior to fill out something like a DNR order, so they could result in deaths for senior citizens.)

The real provision that should cause concern is Section 223.

SEC. 223. HEALTH BENEFITS ADVISORY COMMITTEE.

(a) Establishment-

(1) IN GENERAL- There is established a private-public advisory committee which shall be a panel of medical and other experts to be known as the Health Benefits Advisory Committee to recommend covered benefits and essential, enhanced, and premium plans.

This establishes a panel that decides what benefits will be covered.  Initially this probably won’t result in the denial of coverage , but based on historic precedent (the U.K., Canada, Oregon, etc.) this will eventually result in coverage being denied for certain benefits.  This is especially likely when the costs incurred start to greatly exceed the projected costs.

The type of bureaucracy set up by this provision has the tendency to evolve, and in the case of committees that set benefits, they tend to evolve into committees that ration health care.

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