although yet another ramificaiton in our screwed-up health care “system” is that when a patient is in extremis (old-fashioned, I know) – acutely ill,unconscious, dying, etc. – patient’s own doctor may not be much involved. Specialists that the patient has never met may well be in charge.

Another reason I stay here in TX is that I’ve had the same doc since I arrived here. When I was in ICU with complications of pneumonia (at one point considered far enough gone for my DH to be phoned at 2:00 a.m. and told to get down to the hosp if he wanted to say good-bye), she was in charge of the specialists who were seeing me in the hospital. When I was conscious again, I was really glad to see her every day, and know that she was keeping up with what all the others were doing.

I like having a dr. who really knows my history, and my weaknesses. She knows that I can have the first sniffles and faint cough in the morning, and bronchitis, full-blown, by afternoon. (Exactly what happened with the pneumonia – although that took another 24 hrs, already admitted by then).

Oh, hon, that ship has sailed. Wish I could give you alink, but I know I’ve already seen it referenced in comments somewhere: “….death panels will inevitabley lead to euthanasia based on income, already have it in Oregon…” kind of stuff. You know.

There’s no end to the misinformation out there. And the people, like McCaughey and Armey who start it off know well that that’s all they have to do, the endless game of “telephone” that is rumor-mongering will expand it from there.