Althouse: Obamacare architect Ezekiel Emanuel dead at 75.

September 22, 2014

Obamacare architect Ezekiel Emanuel dead at 75.

He hopes.

68 comments:

rhhardin said...: Also, make the retirement age 76.; 9/22/14, 8:56 PM
Meade said...: R.I.P.; 9/22/14, 8:57 PM
Original Mike said...: This man is evil. And he designed your new health care system.; 9/22/14, 8:59 PM
Tank said...: Why wait?

Just do it!; 9/22/14, 9:00 PM
retired said...: Ethicist = nihilist, just like his brothers.; 9/22/14, 9:01 PM
Anonymous said...: I'm thinking more like 65. Step up!; 9/22/14, 9:03 PM
Big Mike said...: I'd like to know how he feels when he hits 74 years 11 months and 29 days.; 9/22/14, 9:03 PM
JackWayne said...: As the song lyric has it:
If you're gonna live like a motherfucker,
Then die like a motherfucker,
So die motherfucker, die!; 9/22/14, 9:04 PM
BarrySanders20 said...: Dang. Death panels.

Old Zeke is a happy warrior for his cause. Some of what he says is logical, but doesn't he he seem a bit zealous? Would you trust him as the One deciding whether to pull your plug? And that comes from someone who doesn't fully trust my wife to pull it early enough.

One of the most ill-cited facts is the old chestnut about the cost of care in the last 6 weeks of someone's life, suggesting that if we just eliminated that care, we could fix out medical cost problem. But you don't know it is the last 6 weeks until the person is dead. Talk about hindsight being 20/20.; 9/22/14, 9:06 PM
Original Mike said...: At the moment, his Wikipedia page gives his date of death as Sept. 22, 2014.; 9/22/14, 9:06 PM
Bob Boyd said...: The doctor says, I have some good news and some bad news.
The good news is we're going to take care of you cradle to grave.
The bad news is we'll be moving the grave closer to the cradle.; 9/22/14, 9:08 PM
D. B. Light said...: I should be used to it by now, but I am still stunned by the rampant anti-humanism of the Left.; 9/22/14, 9:10 PM
Michael K said...: Don't get my hopes up like that.; 9/22/14, 9:13 PM
PB said...: Making the retirement age 70 and Medicare and SS start then and run-out at 75 would certainly help solve the entitlement problem...; 9/22/14, 9:15 PM
MisterBuddwing said...: I'd like to know how he feels when he hits 74 years 11 months and 29 days.

He reserves the right to change his mind:

And I retain the right to change my mind and offer a vigorous and reasoned defense of living as long as possible.

So there. (Snort.); 9/22/14, 9:15 PM
PB said...: The banality of evil?; 9/22/14, 9:16 PM
sojerofgod said...: Death panels are for the little people. In his article he makes clear that persons who are not "contributing to society" are overripe for the plucking, so to speak. Naturally as one of the natural 'leaders' of the arbiters of what constitutes a contribution, he will at once decide who lives or dies, while being exempt from the cull himself. After all, that is his contribution to society: murdering the elderly and unfit. I believe the phrase used before was, "useless eaters" a fave among the crowd that included Herr Goebbels, Herr Himmler, and of course the man himself, Herr Hitler.

As for me, I will continue to contribute to society to my dying day, making such durable goods as lamp posts. I expect there to be a run on them in the next few years. Rope too, but growing hemp is too tightly regulated to bother with.; 9/22/14, 9:17 PM
Bob Ellison said...: "Pig like that, you don't eat all at once."; 9/22/14, 9:19 PM
sojerofgod said...: Oh! I almost forgot!
For you classic SciFi fans, look up the novel by Issac Asimov called "Pebble in the Sky" and the reference to "The Sixty"
Quite apropos of the converse.; 9/22/14, 9:19 PM
Meade said...: "The bad news is we'll be moving the grave closer to the cradle."

Heh. And if you're still a fetus, we may have a little more bad news: we're skipping the cradle altogether.; 9/22/14, 9:20 PM
dwick said...: I was beginning to think I would die before finishing reading his 'magnum opus' here... talk about a gaseous windbag. This piece could really use some editing.
(I notice he had to throw in at least one 'Again, let me be clear...' Obama tic... what is it with these people that think they have to reiterate everything for us unwashed masses out here?); 9/22/14, 9:36 PM
chickelit said...: The bad news is that this guy is not just a death panelist, he's the show's host so far. Be very, very afraid.; 9/22/14, 9:36 PM
Original Mike said...: "For you classic SciFi fans, look up the novel by Issac Asimov called "Pebble in the Sky" and the reference to "The Sixty""

Grow old along with me,
The best is yet to be,
The last of life for which the first was made.; 9/22/14, 9:40 PM
Dr Weevil said...: Long before Asimov, Anthony Trollope wrote the "satirical dystopian novel" The Fixed Period, in which the inhabitants of an island near New Zealand agree to die at 68. It was published in 1882, when he was 67. And it was set in the far future of 1980.

According to Wikipedia, Trollope was inspired by The Old Law, a play from 1610-1620 or thereabouts by Middleton, Rowley, and maybe Massinger, in which the inhabitants of Epire (NW Greece) are required to die at 80 (for men) or 60 (if female). Not to give away the ending, but it's a tragicomedy.; 9/22/14, 9:42 PM
Bob Boyd said...: "...we're skipping the cradle altogether."

As my old granddad used to say, "If you can make it to the cradle you can make it to the grave so stop worrying and put the damn apple back on your head so I can win this bet and you can get my damned car washed before supper.; 9/22/14, 9:45 PM
Humperdink said...: Interestingly, Zeke's parents are over 75.

The conversation at this year's family Thanksgiving dinner ought to be highly entertaining.

I often wonder how how many patients Dr. Zeke has, if any. Evil personified.; 9/22/14, 9:48 PM
Meade said...: Your old granddad kills me.

And I'm not even 70 yet.

I know — "soon will be".; 9/22/14, 9:48 PM
MadisonMan said...: What dwick said. The writing needs an editor. Good God.

From what I read, it seems like non-productive people are to be avoided -- that's how he measures fitness, apparently. Sitting around and doing nothing? Not desirable. How Puritan.

I don't understand how people can take their own (IMO misguided) worldview and then generalize it to the entire country and think it'll work. What a grand and inflated opinion of his own self he has!; 9/22/14, 9:55 PM
sojerofgod said...: See, all of this wrangling about being useful to society would go away if these people would just
MIND THIER OWN G-DAMMED BUSINESS.

But they can't.
It's a sickness.
no cure.
Perhaps they should be euthanized.
For their own good, of course.; 9/22/14, 10:08 PM
Jupiter said...: "In his article he makes clear that persons who are not "contributing to society" are overripe for the plucking, so to speak."

So, what's he waiting for? Time for Zeke to get plucked! One less of him is way too many.; 9/22/14, 10:15 PM
Original Mike said...: Wikipedia has him alive again. But I saved a screenshot of his death.; 9/22/14, 10:36 PM
Original Mike said...: And people say there will be no rationing of health care. Fools.; 9/22/14, 10:40 PM
Darleen said...: CAROUSEL!!; 9/22/14, 10:48 PM
Opinh Bombay said...: I gotta a $100 says he has a different opinion at 74.95 years.; 9/22/14, 10:58 PM
Beorn said...: CAROUSEL!!

Nice Logan's Run reference!!; 9/22/14, 11:18 PM
Curious George said...: Zeke, do it!; 9/22/14, 11:28 PM
cubanbob said...: its amazing how perspective changes as you age. What appears intolerable at a certain age can be tolerable at a more advanced age. My grandmother told one once that life is just as sweet at 80 as it is at 18 and when she was 80 she was hard diabetic with bad circulatory problems, vision problems and hearing problems but she wasn't in a rush to shuffle off any sooner than necessary. We are all going croak no matter what so whats the rush? Unless one is suffering intolerable pain whats the hurry? Emanuel is just a windbag. Lets see if he agrees with his position today when he hits 75 or if he is willing to apply the same standards to his parents or other loved ones.; 9/22/14, 11:40 PM
FullMoon said...: Dying at 75 would save a lot of poor black women from at least five agonizing years of eating out of garbage cans and living on the streets; 9/22/14, 11:55 PM
Revenant said...: Why does he have to hope? Rat poison is cheap.; 9/23/14, 12:50 AM
Revenant said...: The atheism creed: "People are animals".

As opposed to vegetables or minerals?; 9/23/14, 12:52 AM
Annie said...: You should google his other but same topic, writings. Health dollars should only be spent on the youngish. They shouldn't be spent on the very young and the very old as they cost too much.

While you are at it, google image his face and compare it to pictures of Goebbels. The resemblance is quite uncanny. (I can't link anything on the device I'm using.); 9/23/14, 1:06 AM
Annie said...: A friend's grandmother is 101 and still active and happy. She had breast cancer at 85. Under Obama and Zeke, they would have told her, 'sucks to be you..here is some Motrin. Now go away. You've lived long enough'.; 9/23/14, 1:14 AM
Achilles said...: Big Mike said...
"I'd like to know how he feels when he hits 74 years 11 months and 29 days."

He is one of the ruling class. This is only for the little people and those who don't think right.; 9/23/14, 1:22 AM
Anonymous said...: "The atheism creed: "People are animals".

As opposed to vegetables or minerals?"

In a "godless" universe what else are people? Isn't it stated that we are evolved monkeys?
Do notice that I made a difference between "atheism" and "socialism" (an atheistic philosophy); 9/23/14, 1:26 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: 65's my number. Not by choice but experience:

The men in my family die at 65,...; 9/23/14, 2:13 AM
Bob said...: Every time I hear the word "bioethicist" they're suggesting we do horrible things to babies or senior citizens. I think that if someone told me that a bioethicist was coming to visit, I'd grab a gun, just to be safe.; 9/23/14, 4:27 AM
L Day said...: E.E. seems to be an arrogant ass, without an ounce of humility.; 9/23/14, 4:46 AM
Birkel said...: The Crack Emcee:

I'm sorry to read that. I hope you break the trend.; 9/23/14, 6:39 AM
MadisonMan said...: He looks awfully aged for 57, IMO. (Speaking as a 54-year-old).

Crack, men in my family die at 49 and 54. Except for my Dad and oldest brother. If they can buck the trend so can I, and so can you.; 9/23/14, 6:44 AM
MayBee said...: I remember when Obamacare was being debated, and Ezekiel's writings came up. Journalists and the left were all, "But it's just academic! Think pieces!"

I guess not so much. Poor Sarah Palin.; 9/23/14, 7:20 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: This seems terribly misguided. It's one thing to not want to live 10+ years in a hospital bed on life support. It's quite another to not put Neosporin on a paper cut in the hopes of again seeing the snows of Kilimanjaro.; 9/23/14, 7:25 AM
Hagar said...: And we thought Dr. Strangelove was an outrageous work of fiction and imagination, but here he is!; 9/23/14, 7:33 AM
Jaq said...: I would like somebody to ask him sometime what he would do with Trig Palin according to his "complete lives" system, which you can read at scholar.google.com, just search on his name.; 9/23/14, 8:05 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: It seems to me that by supporting a healthcare system that pays for care for as long as you live, but advocating that an individual let themselves die much younger, the has things exactly backwards.

Society's job it to continue society, largely through protecting women and children and promoting the raising of children into functioning adults. Thus society should be focused on support for children, parents raising children, and maybe even grandparents who are helping their children start out as new parents. Once you are past that point, helping you out is no longer society's business. If you want to live beyond that, that is your business, with the help of your children if they are willing.

Note that I'm not saying society should kill you, or tax you out of existence, or anything like that. But the way we have Social Security, Medicare, and the ACA set up to transfer money from the young to the old is unconscionable. ( And I say that as someone who has been paying into the system for many years and is close to being on the receiving end of those transfers. ); 9/23/14, 8:16 AM
Peter said...: There are at least two basic problems here: the arbitrary year, and the inability of most to know if they’d want to live with impairments.

If you ask people if they’d want to live as a paraplegic, most will say “no.” Yet when one interviews paraplegics, most have come to terms with their limitations and find their lives well worth living.

Of course, some don’t. But research on this indicates that most of us do a very poor job in determining whether our future, impaired selves would want to live.

The second problem is the hardcoded age, 75. Old people may be described as the young-old and the old-old. The young-old are those of advanced years who don’t show major impairments. The transition between the two may be gradual, but often it’s abrupt: a stroke impairs cognitive ability, or a fall ends mobility.

And yet the transition from young-old to old-old is often reversible, at least for awhile: someone gets a stent, and cognitive ability returns; someone else gets a prosthesis, and mobility returns. I recall an old man I knew who, at age 92, could still walk, drive competently, and maintain a lively conversation.

Why would the author refuse a flu shot? Yes, if the vaccine were rare then perhaps it should go to someone else. But it’s not, it’s plentiful and inexpensive and, although it doesn’t work as well on older people it’s still offers a great deal of benefit for very little risk. And it’s not even as if the flu is likely to kill you: unless you’re quite frail, even at 75 it probably just means a miserable couple of weeks. Does this refusal make sense?

Of course, we know what's coming: those over 75 (or without enough QALYs) will only receive palliative care. But (since everything is political when gov't pays for it) $zillions will be wasted on ineffective treatments for autism. As will gender-reassignment treatments, including surgery.

O Brave New World that has such wonders in it!; 9/23/14, 8:20 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: My grandfather is 89. He flew a biplane last weekend.

Accustom us to less care. "You really don't need many mammograms." Accustom us to no care after a certain age. "Why live past 75?" It's like there really are going to be death panels or something.; 9/23/14, 9:49 AM
Doug said...: Let him do it ... more oxygen for me.; 9/23/14, 9:50 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: The people in my family live a long, long time until they drop dead suddenly from strokes.

Or so I thought until my dad died at fifty-nine.

The truth is that you never know when your number is up.; 9/23/14, 9:56 AM
Kelly said...: I would have guessed he was pushing 70. My mom is 71, still works several days a week and still out walks me on the fitbit. My step-dad is 66 and took a part-time job at FedEx just to stay active after selling his business. He walks 17,000 steps a day and he does such a good job he works 42 hours a week instead of the part time he was hired for. People half his age don't last long in the job. Neither have any major health problems.; 9/23/14, 10:03 AM
Big Mike said...: It was pretty obvious that the way Obamacare was going to bend the cost curve was through rationing healthcare by age, i.e., letting old people die waiting for appointments the way that VA already works.

Obama himself said as much with his "blue pill" speech.

And now you're in your sixties, Althouse. You're a law professor so I assume you'll have your affairs in order a decade from now.; 9/23/14, 10:16 AM
Joe said...: I'm pretty sure Exekial will change his tune as he approaches 75. He will very likely argue that HE still has contributions to give unlike all those other saps.; 9/23/14, 10:22 AM
David said...: Crack, the men in my family have all died before age 57. My dad was 49. I have made it to 71, proving that white people Can change. 71 is pretty great. Go for it.; 9/23/14, 10:41 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: Let's face it. He's not really arguing that he shouldn't live past 75; he's arguing that other people, like his own father, shouldn't. The well-connected will never have to worry about rationing.; 9/23/14, 10:49 AM
Anonymous said...: He can always off himself, and his siblings with him at the same time. Save a lot of healthcare dollars and lessen quite a bit carbon foot prints.; 9/23/14, 11:07 AM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: Something something life expectancy differs by race so 75 is a racist number.; 9/23/14, 11:32 AM
Jupiter said...: "The Crack Emcee said...
65's my number. Not by choice but experience:

The men in my family die at 65,..."

One more way white people screwed you over, Crack -- Bad genes!; 9/23/14, 10:02 PM
MathMom said...: My mom is 89. Three weeks ago Saturday she woke with intolerable pain in her back, and had trouble breathing because of the pain. Hydrocodone didn't help.

MRI showed a collapsed vertebra from osteoporosis. Last Friday she had kyphoplasty, an out-patient procedure which elevates the collapsed vertebra with a balloon, and fills the hole with bone cement. It is like putting a cast on the inside of the bone instead of the outside. The cement sets in about 2 hours.

Most patients receive complete pain relief immediately, with about three days for the pain from the intervention to recede. She is now pain-free.

Ezekiel Emanuel and Barack Obama would say "take the pain pill", if she wasn't polite enough to snuff herself. The pain pills made her more of a burden, because she couldn't think well on them, staggered and lost balance, and in general had to be watched around the clock because of them.

They can't see the beauty of some person thinking up such a creative solution for a crippling condition, and making it possible for people who would have been bedridden in pain to be back on their feet in days.

These people are ghouls.

Also, I'm 60 and look a hell of a lot younger than Emanuel. Perhaps evil rots you out from the inside.; 9/23/14, 11:30 PM
Mariposa said...: As a 70 year old I am made very uncomfortable by Dr. E's ideas. I consider his article a microagression against the elderly.; 9/24/14, 10:03 AM