Nearly every expert and group that has looked at how to control U.S. medical cost growth says more Americans should fill out advance directives to help reduce costly futile care at the end of life. In 2009, there was some bipartisan support in Congress for having Medicare pay physicians for their time in counseling patients on living wills and end-of-life care. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) pushed for inclusion of the provision in the healthcare reform legislation.
But Sarah Palin and other conservatives twisted this into “death panels,” accusing President Barack Obama and the Democrats of trying to throw granny off the cliff. Terrified Democratic sponsors of the reform legislation yanked the provision. But the death panel myth helped fuel the rise of the Tea Party and the Republican takeover of the House in 2010.