IPAB: A death panel by any other name. Bring out your dead!

"The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse."
--James Madison
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"One of the most fundamental concepts in economics is the reality of scarcity. No matter what economic system a nation employs, no matter what laws are passed, there will simply never be enough resources to fully satisfy everyone's desires. Every nation therefore must choose a way to allocate their limited resources. This has been done by the sword and spear, on the whims of politicians and bureaucrats and, in the free market system, through the free decisions of individual citizens reflected by the price system.

In the long and miserable history of government intrusion of health care, perhaps the single most damaging act has been to hide medical care prices from the patient. Americans are actually very sophisticated consumers but the government doesn't trust them to to consume health care. Instead they've created a system that utilizes third-party payers (insurance companies, Medicare, etc.) and while the prices may be hidden from the consumer the ever-increasing costs in the form of premiums and taxes certainly aren't.

Imagine using the government's health care economic model for any other sector of our economy."