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While the debate on health-care reform has centered on a publicly funded insurance option, the conversation most recently has shifted to healthcare for the elderly, particularly with GOP figures like Sarah Palin having invoked the specter of so-called death panels for the elderly as part of President Obama’s plan. Myths and threats abound over Medicare – the government-funded healthcare program for Americans over the age of 65. Republicans have resisted efforts to view Medicare as a positive example of public healthcare, but have also fiercely defended Medicare spending, most recently in the Republican National Committee’s “Healthcare Bill of Rights for Seniors” which it released yesterday. While the idea of a single-payer system, often called Medicare-for-all, has been denounced, conservative slogans at healthcare forums have included “keep the government out of my Medicare.” President Obama has promised to make Medicare “more efficient,” but many fear this translates into cuts in benefits. Meanwhile, the AARP, the nation’s largest grassroots lobbying group for Seniors, has not taken a formal position in the healthcare debate, even though a vast majority of their members enjoy Medicare benefits. Recently 60,000 members of the organization reportedly defected to a rival conservative organization called American Seniors Association in response to what they view as AARP’s support for the Democrats’ health care reform proposals. The new Republican tactic to scare Americans from health care reform seems to be to link the President to a support for euthanasia – the VA’s handbook on end-of-life choices has been suddenly “re-discovered” as a so-called “death-book” which apparently encourages veterans to end their life.

GUEST: Geri Jenkins, Co-President of the California Nurses Association, Karl Frisch, Senior Fellow at Media Matters