Let elderly people ‘hurry up and die’, says Japanese minister

We’ve written many times here about our concerns about the national healthcare takeover act, known by most as “Obamacare” and misleadingly named  “the affordable care act”.  One of the concerns that many hold about nationalized healthcare is the worry that a group of politically-appointed bureaucrats would hold the power of life and death over healthcare decisions for Americans who aren’t members of some privileged group such as politicians, government employees or union members.  The phrase that has been used to describe this concern, “death panel”, has been vilified and derisively dismissed by those for whom nationalized healthcare cannot come soon enough.

Now comes the news that in another country, a political leader is very vocal in pushing his belief that “elderly people should hurry up and die” in order to save the country money on healthcare.  If that can happen in Japan, which is famously respectful of its elderly, what is to prevent it from happening in the United States, which is well-known for marginalizing its elderly citizens?

See the entire story at The Guardian.