# Sarah Palin proven right! Government tricks beautiful young mom; imposes 1st Death Panel Verdict **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 12, 2010, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888 "2010-04-12T22:18:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/21 "2010-04-12T22:59:57Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > That would amount to banning him. ☹ All in favor, say “yea”! ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/22 "2010-04-12T23:03:30Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > Duh … yes. > > If we had full universal health care then no one would ever get cut off because the government accidentally raised their income over some arbitrary threshold. > > What would you prefer? No Medicaid at all so she’d die more quickly? Accidentally? _Accidentally?_ Hell, they sent her an offer to begin disability payments for her three year old son. I know several people who get SS disability and every one was denied initially after a one-year wait, including a woman who was left completely paralyzed on one side after a stroke. The SS administration determined she was still capable of some kind of work. Every person I know who is currently drawing SS disability had to hire a lawyer in order to make it happen. And then, the month after the offer was made her cancer treatment got cut off. Since when dies the SS administration move so quickly? Hell, their website advises a three month head start when applying for retirement benefits just to try to make sure you get them on time. And if this was some kind of accident on the government’s part which caused her to become disqualified, why wouldn’t they allow her to cancel her son’s disability benefits and reinstate her treatment? No, instead they hide behind red tape and give her the typical government bullshit about how she can’t do that - it’s “too late”. Why is it too late? It’s impossible for some reason for the government to stop cover once it’s begun? Or reinstitute it once cancelled? It seems that now that the case has gotten publicity and a state senator is getting involved, it is suddenly possible for SS to begin taking pains to “make sure” her operation takes place as planned. If she hadn’t been so attractive and her kid not so cute, I’d wager we never would have heard about it in the first place and she would have been left to die. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/23 "2010-04-12T23:03:47Z")
Is this a pitch to the [Sarah Palin Network](http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/sarah-palin-network/1217966/)? ---
**Author:** ![Torpor\_Beast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@Torpor\_Beast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torpor_Beast)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/24 "2010-04-12T23:04:47Z")
The thing all you socialist goons are obviously forgetting, is that the woman in the OP’s link is **beautiful**. Bad things shouldn’t happen to beautiful people! ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/25 "2010-04-12T23:05:01Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Try this: Before you post, say what you wrote down out loud. If you find yourself shaking your head and exclaiming something along the lines of, “What the hell does _that_ mean?”, delete. It made perfect sense to both me and **The Hamster King**. Don’t know why it went past you. ---
**Author:** ![Amber\_in\_Treasury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Amber\_in\_Treasury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amber_in_Treasury)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/26 "2010-04-12T23:05:35Z")
Very slight hijack here, but I’m just curious. **Starving Artist,** can you name any countries that currently have universal healthcare systems? If so, do you believe they have “death panels” too? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/27 "2010-04-12T23:05:49Z")
> [@](#): > > In April, **Medicaid canceled her universal health care policy because her income level had risen with her son’s payments – making her ineligible** for the insurance program. Emphasis added. Well, I’m glad to see **Starving Artist** finally on board with opposing the Bush administration’s harsh regulatory cuts to the Medicaid program, which is what caused Ms. Smith’s coverage problem in the first place. Bush relentlessly pushed for cuts to Medicaid not only through proposed budget measures (which generally didn’t pass Congress) but through regulatory measures (which Congress doesn’t control). When Medicaid funding to states was cut, they responded with cost-cutting measures like making income eligibility tests more stringent, as in Ms. Smith’s case. I’m happy to see that **Starving Artist** is upset about this terrible situation, but he needs to put the blame where it belongs: namely, on his fellow conservatives who kept bitching and moaning about “welfare queens” wallowing in government handouts, and turning up the pressure to reduce taxpayer funding to help them. Ashamed of yourself yet, **Starvy**? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/28 "2010-04-12T23:07:41Z")
> [@Torpor\_Beast](#): > > The thing all you socialist goons are obviously forgetting, is that the woman in the OP’s link is **beautiful**. Bad things shouldn’t happen to beautiful people! Why else would Obama want to trick her into desperation for his Death Panelist brothels? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/29 "2010-04-12T23:08:24Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I see. So if we had full government health care to protect us from partial government health care, then the government would no longer be able to offer us benefits in order to disqualify us from getting health care? Yes!!! That’s the whole fucking point of UHC. Jeez, **Starving Artist** , in your rabid opposition to that thing that every other developed nation on earth has, did you even look at how UHC works in every other developed nation on earth? This is PRECISELY the kind of situation that UHC aims to stop. The reason that this poor woman has had her Medicare removed is that Medicare is a shitty sop to stop merely the very poorest of people dying of treatable illness and injury, in the richest country on earth. A country that contains a worrying number of people like you with the insane idea that their government is worse than every other government in the developed world and therefore can’t be trusted. Dude, it was your government that put men on the moon. It’s probably not worse than every other government in the developed world. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/30 "2010-04-12T23:09:52Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > Y’know, some drone in the (administered by the Feds) SSDI probably thought he was doing a good deed. “Son of a gun,” he said. “I can get this woman and her child some more income.” > > It’s an sign of how bad our current health care system is, not a warning for the one we _will_ have in the future, that he did not know about the fact that the extra income would cause Medicare (administered by the State of Florida) to cut her off. So then why did they stonewall her and tell her it was “too late” when she tried to cancel her son’s disability benefit and reinstate her health care? Sounds like some drone somewhere just didn’t give a shit. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/31 "2010-04-12T23:10:05Z")
I have to call SA on this. There’s no picture in the article. How do we know this woman is beautiful? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/32 "2010-04-12T23:12:43Z")
I just clicked it and the photo’s there. ---
**Author:** ![Cort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/77aa72/32.png) [@Cort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cort)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/33 "2010-04-12T23:13:20Z")
**Starving Artist** - Can you say hand on heart that you would be as outraged if a private corporation had treated a paying customer in this way? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/34 "2010-04-12T23:14:57Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Accidentally? _Accidentally?_ Hell, they sent her an offer to begin disability payments for her three year old son. I know several people who get SS disability and every one was denied initially after a one-year wait, including a woman who was left completely paralyzed on one side after a stroke. The people you know and who are routinely denied are applying for/receiving Social Security Disability Insurance. This woman/her son were offered Social Security Supplemental Security Income, which is something else entirely. It’s a lot easier to qualify for. The son is not eligible for SSDI (unless he’s been paying Social Security payroll taxes for 10 years, which is somewhat unlikely). Anyway, complete critical thinking fail on your part. The woman’s income rose around the threshold for Medicaid eligibility. That’s not the government’s fault; if you hadn’t seen a way to tangentially connect the story with one of your pet whines, you’d probably be lecturing us about how “this stupid freeloader got what she deserved”. > [@](#): > > So then why did they stonewall her and tell her it was “too late” when she tried to cancel her son’s disability benefit and reinstate her health care? Probably because Medicaid eligibility is calculated based on annual income, and she’d already crossed the threshold. If “some drone” had reinstated her health care he’d be breaking the law and committing Medicaid fraud. She would probably have had to give back the extra income, and didn’t have it available (understandably). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/35 "2010-04-12T23:16:02Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Accidentally? _Accidentally?_ Hell, they sent her an offer to begin disability payments for her three year old son. So you’re pissed off that some government bureaucrat actually went out of their way to pay this women benefits that, by law, she was rightly owed? :rolleyes: You should be PLEASED with this outcome. Medicaid is means-tested. Otherwise it would be Universal Health Care. The woman’s income now is above the cut-off level. Why should a freeloader like her be allowed to suck at the teat of the nanny state? She should pay for her own health care like everyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/36 "2010-04-12T23:25:38Z")
> [@Cort](#): > > Starving Artist - Can you say hand on heart that you would be as outraged if a private corporation had treated a paying customer in this way? If they employed the same type of trickery and unwillingness to correct the situation, yes I would. > [@Really Not All That Bright](#): > > This woman/her son were offered Social Security Supplemental Security Income, which is something else entirely. It’s a lot easier to qualify for. The son is not eligible for SSDI (unless he’s been paying Social Security payroll taxes for 10 years, which is somewhat unlikely). Not that it matters, but where does the article say that he was being paid SSI? The article says she was offered SS disability payments. SSI is apart from disablity, although it can sometimes be paid along with it. The point is though that this woman was offered benefits voluntarily by the government without having asked for them, and then told, in effect, tough shit and denied recourse when she found that they disqualifed her from the life-saving treatment she was scheduled soon to receive. > [@Really Not All That Bright](#): > > Anyway, complete critical thinking fail on your part. The woman’s income rose around the threshold for Medicaid eligibility. That’s not the government’s fault; if you hadn’t seen a way to tangentially connect the story with one of your pet whines, you’d probably be lecturing us about how “this stupid freeloader got what she deserved”. Nope. I’ve also said numerous times that I have no problem with programs to assist people who are truly needy. My gripe is with putting the government in charge of everyone’s health care, and largely for the very reasons illustrated by this case. The government does not give a shit about you and will leave you twisting in the wind anytime it suits their purpose to do so, and unlike with private insurance, you have no other choice. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/37 "2010-04-12T23:29:10Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Not that it matters, but where does the article say that he was being paid SSI? The article says she was offered SS disability payments. SSI is apart from disablity, although it can sometimes be paid along with it. The point is though that this woman was offered benefits voluntarily by the government without having asked for them, and then told, in effect, tough shit and denied recourse when she found that they disqualifed her from the life-saving treatment she was scheduled soon to receive. The benefits were for her son, per your article, not her. A 3 year old child is not eligible for Social Security Disability Insurance- you have to have “paid in” 40 quarters (ie., paid SS payroll taxes for 10 years). The point is not that she was offered benefits without having asked for them- she signed the letter, and thus did ask for them- it’s that she accepted them without bothering to check whether it would affect her Medicaid eligibility. Sad, but no fault of anyone but her. > [@](#): > > Nope. I’ve also said numerous times that I have no problem with programs to assist people who are truly needy. My gripe is with putting the government in charge of everyone’s health care, and largely for the very reasons illustrated by this case. The government does not give a shit about you and will leave you twisting in the wind anytime it suits their purpose to do so, and unlike with private insurance, you have no other choice. The government gives more of a shit about me than a health insurer- after all, if I’m dead, I’m not going to be paying premiums anyway- and is certainly more likely to listen when I petition my Congressman for help. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/38 "2010-04-12T23:29:25Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Nope. I’ve also said numerous times that I have no problem with programs to assist people who are truly needy. So what’s your problem in this case? The woman makes more money than the cut-off, so she’s not “truly needy”. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/39 "2010-04-12T23:34:14Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > So you’re pissed off that some government bureaucrat actually went out of their way to pay this women benefits that, by law, she was rightly owed? :rolleyes Look, I don’t have time for this nonsense. I’m pissed that the government went out of its way (something that I’ve never, ever, known of it to do before) to offer this woman benefits that served to disqualify her from receiving the expensive transplant operation she was scheduled soon to receive. And I’m confident that my anger is properly placed because of the fact that when confronted with the consequences of their supposed largesse and the fact that it would indeed result in this woman and mother dying, she was told, in effect “tough shit, nothing can be done about it”. If the government had genuinely been trying to act in her best interest and give her all it could, it stands to reason that it would have been equally eager, if not more so, to rescind her son’s disability payments and reinstate the coverage needed to save her life. And now I have work to do, so you are all now free to equivocate and stick your heads in the sand without further interference from me for the rest of the afternoon. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888/40 "2010-04-12T23:36:09Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Look, I don’t have time for this nonsense. I’m pissed that the government went out of its way (something that I’ve never, ever, known of it to do before) to offer this woman benefits that served to disqualify her from receiving the expensive transplant operation she was scheduled soon to receive. And I’m confident that my anger is properly placed because of the fact that when confronted with the consequences of their supposed largesse and the fact that it would indeed result in this woman and mother dying, she was told, in effect “tough shit, nothing can be done about it”. If the government had genuinely been trying to act in her best interest and give her all it could, it stands to reason that it would have been equally eager, if not more so, to rescind her son’s disability payments and reinstate the coverage needed to save her life. > > And now I have work to do, so you are all now free to equivocate and stick your heads in the sand without further interference from me for the rest of the afternoon. So you are that stupid? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-proven-right-government-tricks-beautiful-young-mom-imposes-1st-death-panel-verdict/535888.md?page=3)