[ceejayoz]

It’s naive to think the USA doesn’t already have death panels. People die after unsuccessfully fighting their insurers for coverage already.

The USA doesn’t put more value on life. We put more costs on it, but our outcomes aren’t meaningfully better.

[unishark]

I don't see that your case has been made. I see more willingness to perform costly interventions as a clear example of how more value is being placed on lives. As for outcomes, you can argue a CYA approach where they try everything they possibly can isn't necessarily more effective, but I disagree that you can dismiss it as proving less value has been placed on life. I also distrust stats about outcomes given how politically charged the topic is. The most obese country in the developed world comes in with a bias towards worse outcomes already.

By the way the vast majority of people who die in the US are an a socialized medicine system at the time (e.g., medicare).

Either way though, yes, of course there's "death panel" behavior or other cost-controls which effectively lead to the same result (e.g. doing harm through inaction rather than direct action), in any system.