“Death Panel” or “Independent Payment Advisory Board”

Whatever you call it, it is health care rationing.  It is based on Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALY) calculations.  Better read up on it, because it will determine what treatment you receive in the era of the “Affordable” Health Care Act.

From the National Institute of Health: “The quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) is a measure of the value of health outcomes. Since health is a function of length of life and quality of life, the QALY was developed as an attempt to combine the value of these attributes into a single index number. The QALY calculation is simple: the change in utility value induced by the treatment is multiplied by the duration of the treatment effect to provide the number of QALYs gained. QALYs can then be incorporated with medical costs to arrive at a final common denominator of cost/QALY.  This parameter can be used to compare the cost-effectiveness of any treatment.”

Yes, death panel about sums it up!