Avik Roy writes an interesting health care column, and he wrote the most reasoned defense that I have read of the view that the Affordable Care Act would lead to the federal government deciding to deny people life saving care for cost reasons. I would like to read his thoughts on Arizona's decision to deny Medicaid funding for heart and other organ transplants. As Aaron Carroll pointed out, denial of lifesaving care is happening in Arizona right now, not in a hypothetical future:
What we’ve got is a state deciding not to pay for something which would save a life, solely for cost reasons. You’ve got a group of people – a panel, if you will – deciding that your family member may die because the treatment is too expensive.
That is, a "death panel". As decried, say, here or here. Or, Avik, are we missing something?
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