Temperatures will continue to fall over the next few days

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support


      President Barack Obama invoked his own anguish over the death of
a loved one as he challenged the debunked notion that Democratic
efforts to overhaul the nation's health care would include "death
panels."

      "I just lost my grandmother last year. I know what it's like to
watch somebody you love, who's aging, deteriorate and have to
struggle with that," an impassioned Obama told a crowd as he spoke
of Madelyn Payne Dunham. 


He took issue with "the notion that
somehow I ran for public office or members of Congress are in this
so they can go around pulling the plug on grandma."


      "When you start making arguments like that, that's simply
dishonest -- especially when I hear the arguments coming from
members of Congress in the other party who, turns out, sponsored
similar provisions," Obama said.


      In a debate in which he often sounds professor-like, Obama spoke
with a rare bit of emotion that seemed to counter that of vocal
health care opponents as he referenced the beloved grandmother who
helped raise him and who he called "Toot." 

She died of cancer at
age 86 on Nov. 2, two days before he won election to become the
nation's first African-American president.


      He talked about her death while answering a question about
misinformation being spread about Democratic health care efforts
during a town hall style gathering in a high school gymnasium.


      "Health care is really hard. This is not easy. I'm a reasonably
dedicated student to this issue. I've got a lot of really smart
people around me who've been working on this for months now," he
said. "There is no perfect painless silver bullet out there that
solves every problem, gives everybody health care for free. There
isn't. I wish there was."

      But he said that because there's no perfect solution to solving
health care, opponents "start saying things like we want to set up
death panels to pull the plug on grandma."


      The president is seeking to put to rest claims that the health
care overhaul he seeks would set up "death panels" to rule on
life-sustaining care for ailing seniors. It would not, and Obama
has stressed that point repeatedly over the past week.


      Obama reiterated his contention that the Democratic health care
legislation would not create "death panels" to deny care to frail
seniors. 

Obama has explained that the provision that has caused the
uproar would only authorize Medicare to pay doctors for counseling
patients about end-of-life care, living wills, hospice care and
other issues, if the patient wants it.

      Conservatives have called end-of-life counseling in government
health care programs like Medicare a step toward euthanasia and
former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has likened the idea to a
bureaucratic "death panel" that would decide whether sick people
get to live. 

Those claims have been widely discredited but the
issue remains a political weapon in the increasingly bitter health
care debate.

Gallery

Constituents converge on Klobuchar's office to talk health care

Big crowd for Peterson's town hall forum on health care

GOP targets Walz, Peterson on health care reform

Minnesota health care leaders optimistic about Obama plan

Health

Politics and Government News

Business and Economic News

Health Care Reform

President Barack Obama invoked his own anguish over the death of
a loved one as he challenged the debunked notion that Democratic
efforts to overhaul the nation's health care would include "death
panels."

Obama gets personal in health care debate

Go Deeper.

Like this?