Reality-Based Since 1996

The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America, the document that defines us as a country:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Definition of "welfare" from www.dictionary.com:

the good fortune, health, happiness, prosperity, etc., of a person, group, or organization; well-being

Definition of "promote" from www.dictionary.com:

to help or encourage to exist or flourish; further

An awful lot of people have trouble understanding the Preamble, which defines the role of the American government. Allow me to simplify:

The Government of the United States was created to provide an orderly government for its citizens, to protect them from invasion, to keep them safe at home, and to ensure their health, happiness, and prosperity. In other words, it is and has been the business of the government of the United States of America to provide for the health of its citizens, and to say otherwise is downright un-American.

From the blog Southern Beale, in response to Sarah Palin's charge that health care reform would bring about death panels:

In your free market wonderland everyone somehow manages to get healthcare, even those who are poor or live in isolated areas, though the poor and isolated in your own state required assistance from the federal government.

And despite all of this, you appear blithely unaware that the free market healthcare system we have now does, indeed, have “death panels.” I’ve been part of a death panel conversation. I know about death panels.

You have no idea what it’s like to be called into a sterile conference room with a hospital administrator you’ve never met before and be told that your mother’s insurance policy will only pay for 30 days in ICU. You can't imagine what it's like to be advised that you need to “make some decisions,” like whether your mother should be released “HTD” which is hospital parlance for “home to die,” or if you want to pay out of pocket to keep her in the ICU another week. And when you ask how much that would cost you are given a number so impossibly large that you realize there really are no decisions to make. The decision has been made for you. "Living will" or no, it doesn't matter. The bank account and the insurance policy have trumped any legal document.

If this isn’t a “death panel” I don’t know what is.

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