health care rationing showed up in the Obama "stimulus" package

A powerful but sobering and observation from Edward Lee Potts in World...

It's also frustrating, given the denials and the obfuscation on the part of those who support Democratic proposals for health care "reform".

Largely lost in the current healthcare debate is that the Obama administration did not wait until the president's televised speech in September to step prominently into the fray but used February's stimulus package to push its healthcare agenda. By allocating $1.1 billion for "comparative effectiveness research"—a phrase often heard in the British healthcare system—the stimulus provided what some fearfully call the first down payment on healthcare that could lead to rationing...

The law also created a 15-member panel dubbed the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research. Tasked with corralling the federal government's health research, the council is to work closely with HHS as well as the departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense to determine "the relative strengths and weakness of various medical interventions"....

One of the members: Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel...