Sarah Palin, with a huge assist from some nameless ghostwriter, has come off of Facebook and gone mainstream with an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.

The piece includes some elements that have been discussed elsewhere: continued uncontrolled costs, tort reform, patient-centricity…. and of course, the ubiquitous, hysteria-driving “death panels”.

Leaving aside the rational bits (and there are some), I played around a bit, mentally, with her scenario of “unelected bureaucrats [making] decisions affecting life or death health-care matters”. This turned out to be a worthwhile exercise, because up until now I’ve had the hardest time understanding why she (or others) could seriously be worried about these “death panels”.

But I’ve finally figured out why some folks might fear such a thing. Palin (and others) see such a possibility because they know there are government officials who want to make those decisions for you.

They’ve seen it. We’ve all seen it. More here at Polimom Too.