"Death Panels" already decide who will live and die

"Death Panels" already decide who will live and who will be denied essential life saving treatments every day:


we just call them "health insurance companies" instead.

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• 29 percent of people who had health insurance were "underinsured," with coverage so meager they often postponed medical care because of costs. A 2006 study found that 10 percent of insured patients with cancer had out-of-pocket expenses of more than $18,500.
  
  
• 49 percent overall, and 43 percent of people with insurance, said they were "somewhat" to "completely" unprepared to cope with a costly medical emergency over the coming year.
  
  
• 20 percent of people in our separate subscriber survey said they were so disappointed with their HMO or PPO that they wanted to switch plans (see "Rating the Health Plans").
  
  
• 16 percent had no health plan at all, including many working respondents whose jobs didn't offer insurance, or who couldn't afford the premiums or deductibles of the available plan.

The U.S. spends an average of $7,000 per capita on health care. According to a 2007 analysis by McKinsey Global Institute, that's 28 percent more than any other industrialized country, even after adjusting for its relative wealth.

In 2006 the annual premium for family coverage averaged $11,480--more than the annual paycheck of a full-time worker earning the minimum wage.