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  The Rule of Sebelius
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ContributorImperator 
Last EditedImperator  Dec 28, 2010 10:50pm
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CategoryPerspective
AuthorRich Lowry
News DateWednesday, December 29, 2010 04:00:00 AM UTC0:0
DescriptionThe text of Obamacare is dry and legalistic, except when it summons the majesty of the King James Bible to intone imperiously, “the secretary shall . . .”

The secretary in question is the secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius, who “shall” and “may” do all manner of things to complete the great unfinished canvas that is Obamacare. As George W. Bush might say, Sebelius is “the decider.” Because of the discretion she’s granted to remake American health care, she rivals Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, and Oprah Winfrey as the most powerful woman in America.

The New York Times reported the other day that HHS has created a version of the “death panels,” in Sarah Palin’s famous coinage, that were stripped out of the law after an uproar in 2009. Why did we bother having that fight, with all its fiery accusations, if Kathleen Sebelius and her underlings could simply act at their discretion?

The first thing to know about death panels is that they aren’t death panels. They are shorthand for consultations between doctors and patients to set up advanced directives governing decisions over end-of-life care. These consultations are innocent enough, even desirable. Unless you worry that Obamacare’s inevitable drift into price controls and rationing will twist them into something more sinister.
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