Obama Fights Back Against Health Care Critics

The health care debate has become increasingly intense in recent weeks, with furious protesters disrupting town hall meetings, and former Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin alleging that health care reform will lead to the establishment of “death panels.”

In an attempt to combat these critics, President Obama will be holding three town hall meetings of his own this week, and has established a new section about health care reform on the White House website, entitled ‘Reality Check.’

At today’s town hall, Obama directly addressed the death panel claims (From the ABC News Blog):

“It turns out that this I guess rose out of a provision in one of the House bills that allowed Medicare to reimburse people for consultations about end of life care” as well as living wills, hospice care, and the like. The “intention,” the president said, was to help patients prepare for “end of life on their own terms.”

President Obama said the “irony” is that one of the chief sponsors of this idea was Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., who “sensibly thought this would expand peoples’ options.”