Death Panels...Ms. Palin Was Half Right & All Wrong.

AllTheirAI's
'RUsVille


This was then (i.e. 2009)...From the Wikiplex:

"Death panel" is a political term that originated during the 2009 debate about federal health care legislation to cover the uninsured in the United States. Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, coined the term when she charged that proposed legislation would create a "death panel" of bureaucrats who would carry out triage...

This is now (i.e. 2023)...From Gretchen Morgenson writing for NBC News:

...HCA Healthcare, the (American) nation’s largest (private, for profit) hospital chain, is highly profitable — last year it earned $5.6 billion — and its stock is a Wall Street darling...

{snip}

...Now, new criticisms are arising related to HCA’s palliative and end-of-life care for patients, according to some physicians and nurses who have worked in its facilities. They say HCA officials press staff to persuade families of ailing patients to initiate such care...

{snip}

... Although this can harm patients by withdrawing lifesaving treatments, the push can benefit HCA two ways, the doctors and nurses said, and an internal hospital document confirms. It reduces in-hospital mortality rates, a closely watched quality measure, and can free up a hospital bed more quickly for HCA, potentially generating more insurance reimbursements from a new patient...

So, there you have it.

Instead of the public program that Ms. Palin worked so hard to trash in the name of political expediency and a little fame, a private, for profit 'healthcare' entity is pushing people away from potentially life saving treatments to enhance the bottom line. 

Morgenson's piece details a specific instance where a patient's Mom was relentlessly pushed to take her Covid sick daughter off a ventilator. The Mom held steadfast over many days and weeks and the daughter ultimately survived and fully recovered.

And just who is it that populates these for profit death panels that make the decisions to push people out of hospitals into hospices in the name of making money?

Doctors?

Nurses?

Administrators?

Bean counters?

CEO's on super yachts?

Well, in at least some cases, it looks to be none of the above:

...At two HCA hospitals, the practice appears to be mechanized, with staff citing an algorithm used to identify patients who are most likely to die soon. This is also known as a vulnerability index, texts shared with NBC News show.

Patients ranking high on the vulnerability index become candidates for palliative care, the texts show. In one, a palliative care team member at an HCA hospital identified such a patient; “Algorithm = 97% risk of mortality today,” it said...

And, as you might expect, when asked about the algorithm an HCA spokesthingy 'declined' to comment.

Cory Doctorow has a theory as to why the bean counters, administrators, and super yacht captains are happy to let machines make the decisions:

...By using "AI" to decide when patients are beyond help, HCA can employ empiricism-washing, declaring the matter to be the factual – and unquestionable – conclusion of a mathematical process, not mere profit-seeking...

Or, put another way....

If millions of Dave's, doctors, and/or loved ones were to ask HAL to open the pod bay doors....errr...keep the patient in a hospital bed...

Why should the machine and/or Sarah Palin and her ilk even bother to listen?

Not to mention care.

OK?

.