SARAH - AT 7:37 P.M. ET:  We've had our criticisms of Sarah Palin here, and the level of preparation she brought to the last presidential campaign.  But in the debate over health care, using her Facebook page, she's had some of the most thoughtful commentary I've seen.  Consider this comment on the "end-of-life counseling" provision, now apparently dropped from the Senate version of the "reform" bill:

Section 1233 authorizes advanced care planning consultations for senior citizens on Medicare every five years, and more often “if there is a significant change in the health condition of the individual ... or upon admission to a skilled nursing facility, a long-term care facility... or a hospice program." [3] During those consultations, practitioners must explain “the continuum of end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice,” and the government benefits available to pay for such services. [4]

Now put this in context. These consultations are authorized whenever a Medicare recipient’s health changes significantly or when they enter a nursing home, and they are part of a bill whose stated purpose is “to reduce the growth in health care spending.” [5] Is it any wonder that senior citizens might view such consultations as attempts to convince them to help reduce health care costs by accepting minimal end-of-life care? As Charles Lane notes in the Washington Post, Section 1233 “addresses compassionate goals in disconcerting proximity to fiscal ones.... If it’s all about obviating suffering, emotional or physical, what’s it doing in a measure to “bend the curve” on health-care costs?”

COMMENT:  Very well argued, and more substantive than any other comment I've seen on the issue.

Now, a caveat:  I cannot guarantee that Sarah Palin actually wrote that.  She may be using a ghostwriter.  If she did write it, though, then she has taken to heart the advice given to her by political pros - to study the issues in detail and then comment on them.

It won't be difficult to find out if she's real or ghosted.  When she starts doing interviews it will be Sarah on camera alone.  No ghosts.  Also, if her website starts showing different writing styles, we'll know the ghosts are getting their checks.

It's intriguing, and we root for her.

August 14, 2009