George Orwell never wrote about health insurance, but his ghost hovers over the current health-care debate, providing inspiration for all manner of fears about Big Brother-like intrusions by the government into the lives of ordinary Americans. First was the rumor—promoted by high-profile Republicans like Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and Iowa Senator Charles Grassley—that Democratic health care plans would create “death panels” which would pass judgment on which citizens deserved to live.