Mendte - Maybe Sarah Palin Was Right About Death Panels

From KPLR 11 St. Louis (in the Entertainment section!): Mendte - Maybe Sarah Palin Was Right About Death Panels
(KPLR)— I want to introduce you to Helen Wagner. She is 91-years-old and still going strong. Or at least she was until she fell after suffering a stroke and broke her arm. Helen is the mother of my sister-in-law Peggy and she and my brother Bob rushed Helen to the emergency room. Her doctor met them there and ordered a series of tests.

The next day the hospital called and told my sister in law to come pick up her mother. She was stunned and asked, "Well what did the test find?" She was told there were no tests done and that Helen wasn't even admitted to the hospital she was just held for observation

My brother, sister in law, and doctor threw a fit and the hospital said they would sort things out. They kept her another night for observation and performed none of the doctor ordered tests. they told the family that they would transport her to a nursing care facility if someone didn't pick her up immediately.

My sister in law and brother pushed the issue until they got a meeting with hospital administration who said 'we are embarrassed by this' but that under a new medicare crackdown they weren't allowed to admit her.

You see if a patient is admitted, Medicare then has to pay more for rehab. Even more if the patient is there for three days.

An advocate for the elderly who got involved in the case then said something chilling. Medicare may have seen she was 91 and made the decision not to pay.

If that's true, then the government overruled a personal physician to save money because Helen was too old.

When I heard the story I couldn't help but think about the death panels that Sarah Palin warned about on her facebook page. She was ridiculed for that claim during the State Of The Union the president called her out.

Now after hearing Helen's story I couldn't help thinking, maybe Sarah Palin was right.