death panels are alive and well today ... in private insurance companies!
The President should personally point out that the "death panels" envisioned by Sarah Palin, Chuck Grassley, and their colleagues already exist today. They are run by private insurance companies. Private insurance companies and their millionaire CEOs who deny care to people with "pre-existing" conditions, and use rescission to take away care from people who have already paid their premiums condemn thousands of Americans each year to un-necessary suffering and death.
The President should state that the proposed legislation will eliminate the very real "death panels" that already exist in private insurance companies today. As an additional safeguard, in case regulators fall asleep at the switch, as the SEC did on Wall St, a publicly owned insurance company will use the power of the marketplace to keep the private companies honest.
It's time to put the insurance companies on the defensive.