Introduction
Sarah Palin is famous for implementing the term “death panel” in response to federal health care legislation that covers uninsured people in the U.S. Palin claimed that the government would create a death panel of bureaucrats to decide whether some people were worthy of medical services. She cited her elderly parents and daughter with Down syndrome as examples of patients who would be marginalized by the legislation. It is important to discuss whether the claim is reliable and how it relates to legislation endorsement and the American Health Care Act (AHCA).
Sarah Palin’s Death Panel Claim
Although Palin made a strong statement, there were no claims about judgments which could decide if people deserved proper health care in the legislation. FactCheck proclaimed Palin’s “death panel” terminology as the choicest falsehood of 2009 that became an unreliable and outrageous notion. The legislation suggested providing insurance for patients, and though it declined the coverage size, all applicants could receive their coverage irrespectively of health status (Rice et al., 2018). Furthermore, the new rules did not concern end-of-life patients (Rice et al., 2018). Therefore, further research and reflection reveals that Palin’s statement was a false exaggeration meant to inspire fear. Moreover, legislation endorsement in nursing is one of the few available strategies, even if the policy is imperfect. Politics is complicated, and it is hard to cut federal spending without losses. Sometimes adaptation is necessary in order to keep the healthcare system functional. It is doubtful whether this topic applies to American Health Care Act as, according to facts, the Act made enormous promises, resulting in colossal conflict (Cutler, 2017). If the previous act cut insurance costs and made compromises, the AHCA seems to break promises.
Conclusion
Overall, it can be concluded that Sarah Palin’s statement was not trustworthy and it is not the best strategy to enact change. An analysis of the facts prove that there is no “death panel” in U.S. healthcare; all applicants could receive coverages, though smaller in size. It can be suitable to endorse health reform in nursing to provide patients and care providers with health coverage. However, the act seems to mismatch with the situation with AHCA, as the latter made promises which it was not able to fulfill.
References
Cutler, D. (2017). Promises made, promises broken: The failure of the American Health Care Act. JAMA Network. Web.
Rice, T., Unruh, L. Y., van Ginneken, E., Rosenau, P., & Barnes, A. J. (2018). Universal coverage reforms in the USA: From Obamacare through Trump. Health Policy, 122(7), 698–702. Web.