2 Words Could Clean Up 'Death Panel' Mess: Parker

White House reverses course, deletes references to counseling

(NEWSER) - The end-of-life counseling derided as "death panels" that was originally part of health care reform, then taken out, then put back in , is back out again. For now. The Obama administration has reversed itself and removed references to the counseling from new Medicare regulations that quietly went into effect at the start of the year. The administration apparently doesn't want that single issue to be a distraction as it defends overall health care reform from the new Republican House, reports the New York Times . More»

Obama to add end-of-life planning to Medicare

(NEWSER) - Sarah Palin's "death panels" are back. The brouhaha surrounding end-of-life counseling forced Democrats to cut it from health care reform, but now President Obama is quietly adding the same policy to Medicare by rewriting regulations, reports the New York Times . Under the new policy, beginning Jan. 1 the government will pay doctors who advise patients on options for end-of-life care, which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive measures. More»

Health care reform no 'government takeover'

(NEWSER) - This year’s biggest political lie is the phrase “a government takeover of health care,” holds the nonpartisan fact-checking group Politifact . The term "government takeover" was suggested by a GOP strategist, who called on Republican leaders to use it to refer to health care reform—and use it they did: 90 times on John Boehner’s website, for example, and 200 times on the RNC site. Politifact editors and readers both chose the phrase as the lie of the year. More»

35% now oppose it, down from 41%

(NEWSER) - The poll numbers for health care reform just keep getting better for Democrats. In a new tracking poll, just 35% say they oppose the landmark law, down from 41% last month, the Washington Post reports, while 50% now hold a favorable view of the law. That’s the best the law has polled since it was passed in March. More»

She thinks we can expect taxpayer dollars to fund abortions

(NEWSER) - Bart Stupak and Kathleen Parker take the fight over abortion funding to the op-ed pages of the Washington Post today.

• In his column , Stupak takes exception to Parker calling him a "backstabber" in a previous column and insists that President Obama's executive order is an "ironclad" guarantee that no federal funds will pay for abortions. "I have said from the start that my goal was to see health-care reform pass while maintaining the long-standing principle of the sanctity of life." This deal got exactly that.