An uninformed patient makes us stronger

This is just discouraging. First they were in, then they were out, then they were in, and now ... end of life care counseling is out of Medicare again:

Medicare coverage for voluntary end-of-life planning was part of the original House version of the overhaul legislation in 2009, but it was dropped after Sarah Palin and other Republicans raised the specter of "death panels" deciding the fate of vulnerable seniors. Those charges were later debunked by several non-partisan fact-checking groups.

This is in the same vein as gag order rules on mentioning abortion to patients, and allowing pharmacists to deny women legally prescribed birth control. Conservatives and religious ideologues seem to be doing all the can to create a population that is both ill informed and ill equipped to receive the best medical information possible. The Catholic News Agency still refers to such planning as 'death panels' in their headline of this story.

So, thanks again Palin. You've done your best to ensure that Americans are as ill-informed about health care as you are about foreign policy.