We’ll need a panel to decide who lives under revised health care bill

On Monday night, Jimmy Kimmel told the story of his newborn son, who would’ve died without an emergency heart operation. It’s an operation that can cost around $200,000.

“If your baby is going to die, it shouldn’t matter how much money you make,” Kimmel said. “We all agree on that, right?”

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Maybe now, thanks to that monologue, we all agree – at least when it comes to babies. But not when it comes to grown people.

On CNN, Congressman Mo Brooks of Alabama said the health care bill he supports is actually intended to charge higher premiums for people with preexisting conditions, because they’re so expensive.

“It will allow interest companies to require people who have higher health care costs to contribute more to the insurance pool, thereby reducing the cost to those people who lead good lives, they’re healthy, they’ve done the things to keep their bodies healthy,” Brooks said.

So if you don’t lead a good life, thereby making yourself sick, you should expect to pay more.

“Now in fairness, a lot of these people with preexisting conditions they have those conditions through no fault of their own,” Brooks said. “And I think our society, under those circumstances, needs to help.”

What Rep. Brooks did not explain, however, is how you decide which sick patients are deserving and which are undeserving, and who makes that decision.

You would need some sort of panel. Panels which, in the case of poor people, would essentially be deciding if you live or not.

We could call them life panels. There’s a more obvious name but it’s already taken.

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