I think "death panels" (terrible name for it) are a good idea, if we're to be funding healthcare at taxpayer expense. You can spend a lot of money to get very little return near the end of life, and the question has to be "how much is too much?"
Some people, especially elderly people with multiple severe medical problems, are essentially lost causes and shouldn't be sucking up more resources than is prudent. It makes sense that we should have qualified panels, comprised of both medical and financial experts, to make the call.
I'm a conservative, and I don't think we should move toward socializing healthcare. If we do, though... we will have to be practical about it.
Not that our opinions are going to matter. Any plan that goes forward will need to be paid for, and the economists and accountants will certainly be hard at work trying to balance the books however possible.
