Rep. Mo Brooks, a Republican from Alabama, says people who contract expensive-to-treat illnesses are going to die under Obamacare.
"I have to look at the big picture," Brooks told the Matt Murphy Show on Friday when asked about those who would lose insurance if Obamacare was repealed. "I have to look at both the pros and the cons for all Americans and the damage that's gonna be done to Americans and the number of Americans vastly outweighs the benefit that is being given to those people that are being subsidized."
Brooks said "ultimately, you're looking at a lesser quality of care—health care." He added that the 15-person board of health-care experts created under the law to control costs -- the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) -- is making decisions about "whether a group of people live or die."
Sarah Palin famously referred to the IPAB as "death panels." The board is currently inactive because health care spending is growing at a slower rate than the threshold needed to activate it.
"An example: the Independent Payment Advisory Board, that's gonna be the entity that decides whether a group of people live or die because that entity is gonna be the one that decides whether health care is going to be provided for certain types of illnesses," said Brooks. "Uh, health care that is now provided by the kinds of insurance—well, I'll say now, that used to be provided—by the quality of insurance that we previously had."
Brooks said this meant, "people are going to be dying because of Obamacare because they're going to be denied coverage." He cited other countries in the world with similar agencies to make his point.
"And so people are going to be dying because of Obamacare because they're going to be denied coverage," said the Alabama Republican. "And how do we know this? Because there are other systems around the globe that have this kind of system in place. And there are people who are dying. You get breast cancer or you want to have a mammogram to try to have early detection to increase your likelihood of being able to survive it. Well, the countries that have this kind of government-run health care system do not provide mammogram access anywhere near the degree that we do in the United States of America. And that saves lives, if you have early detection. You lose lives if you have later detection."
Brooks again stressed that this meant there would be "people dying as a result of Obamacare just as they die in other parts of the world." He said if you had expensive illnesses "you're gonna die."
"And that's what you're going to be looking at is people dying as a result of Obamacare just as they die in other parts of the world. Now, Obamacare and government-run health care systems generally, they're good for the routine stuff. You got strep throat? Great. They'll address it. You got a broken leg? Uh, they'll mend it, okay. For the routine things. But the kinds of illnesses that threaten to kill people, that are expensive to treat, that's where they're gonna tell you to get your affairs in order because they're not gonna provide coverage and you're gonna die."
Here's the audio, the comments come 5:07:
