A real death panel finally located

Dr. Brenner is one of this year's recipients of a McArthur Foundation genius award.

For years, ever since Sarah Palin first clued me in, I've been looking for a death panel.

I knew they were out there, lurking in the shadows, waiting to hurt the American people.  Behind my locked doors and between my blinds, I peered out the window.  Waiting, worried, I even considered buying a gun.  I searched on Google and I watched TV news. I knew the death panel would come for me, eventually.  Sarah said it would.

Then I finally realized, they were right there all along, in front of us, but hidden.  A Manchuria candidate, a Trojan horse had rolled into Washington, DC.  It's clear as day to me now.  It's the extremist Republicans.

A Congressional Death Panel is trying to take over, and they simply want you and your family to die.  Sarah Palin was right all along.  She was just looking in the wrong places.

If you are sick, tough luck.  If your feet are falling off from untreated diabetes and a diabetic foot ulcer, and you don't have insurance, just pull yourself up by your bootstraps.  For God's sake, just tie your gangrenous toe back on.

If you have cervical cancer, just pray it away.  Close to bankruptcy from unpaid medical bills? Don't worry. Their new stricter personal bankruptcy laws will push you to an early demise.  If you had a baby last year, you're not ready to get pregnant again, and can't afford birth control pills, too bad. You shouldn't be having sex anyway.

We live in mean times, and mean people will stop at nothing to keep you and your family from having access to health care coverage.  The extremist Death Panel is here, and they want to pull the plug on your family.

So nail your door shut, close your blinds, stock up on supplies because a real Death Panel has finally been located. It's in Washington, DC.

Jeffrey C Brenner, MD is a family physician in Camden, NJ and the Executive Director of the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers.