In 2009, Obama's healthcare proposal required health insurance to pay for a doctor to discuss end-of-life options with patients. This could have helped save hundreds of thousands of dollars for each patient who opted out of the pointless treatments Ken described in his article. The Republicans/religious right/pro-lifers killed it by claiming that government "death panels" would decide who would and who would not get care.
In the Terri Schiavo case, the Florida legislature, the Governor of Florida, Republicans in Congress, and President George W Bush all worked to keep a brain-dead woman on life support for seven years. She would still be on life support if they had their way. A Wikipedia article concluded with "Various organizations and protesters demanded that Schiavo's feeding tube be reinserted. Most of these groups were affiliated with the Christian right."
I conclude that the Christian right is contributing to the problem you describe.
Bob - I think you make an excellent (and might I say obvious) point there are groups which work hard to shape public policy, and health care review panels is no exception. That they don't typically get involved in specific cases - except high visibility ones like Terri Schiavo - doesn't mean they are not working hard to support their point of view.
Other countries, notably in Europe, have come to the realization that resources are finite, and attempt to put in place those processes which distribute those resources. We (the U.S.) operate as though resources and growth are infinite. Not much will change until/unless we can accept that there are limits.
