Panels? Almost Nobody Gets Unlimited Treatment Now

[question everything]

Finally letters to the WSJ stating the obvious:

When I started reading the "The Panel" by Andrew Klavan (op-ed, Aug. 18), http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970204683204574356241709682828.html I wasn't sure if he was warning against government panels making life or death health decisions or insurance executives doing the same. I'd like to know what kind of insurance Mr. Klavan has that allows him free reign to make all his own health care decisions? I'd like to buy it, but I would probably be denied because I've had cancer. If the majority of Americans think they are making their own health-care decisions they are fooling themselves. Let's face facts; almost nobody in America gets carte blanche when it comes to health care, certainly not people under 65 years old.

Shari Posey
Long Beach, Calif.

I'd like to be able to chuckle at Andrew Klavan's fanciful, if perhaps clichéd portrait of a death panel. After all, I know that the idea of such panels is nothing more than an inflammatory notion being used by propagandists to rouse opposition to health-care reform. But then I remember the sorry truth. Death panels already exist. Every insurance company has one. And quite often their denial of coverage letters are equal to death sentences. So here's a question: If the choice were denial of coverage based on the deliberations of a panel of experts trying to serve the general welfare of the nation (think the Supreme Court) versus the calculations of an accounting team told their bonuses rest on padding the corporate bottom line, which would you choose?

Hugh Siegel
New York

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970203550604574360973893437900.html