Notwithstanding Palin’s misrepresentations, the supreme irony is that it is the Republicans who love “death panels.” With the demise of the health insurance mandate, the Republicans are taking legal action to facilitate the recrudescence of actuarial “death panels.” Based on the court rulings that undercut the ACA insurance mandate, the attorneys general of various Republican-controlled states have brought a lawsuit to permit insurance companies to once again deny health insurance on the basis of pre-existing conditions, or to make it once again unaffordable for families with these conditions. Not surprisingly, the administration of the current president has refused to defend the law or the principle that pre-existing conditions should not be grounds for denial of coverage of increased premiums.