Perhaps you're right. Dealing with all the nonsense just doesn't feel like politics from the inside :)

The death panel myth seems to be a separate issue. I'm talking about discharging patients that don't need further medical care nor nursing home care because they're healthy enough to go home. The same rules would apply to younger patients. The concept of futile care is another problem entirely, and definitely a more political issue, especially in religious countries like the US.

Tests and treatments on the other hand can be pointless for many other reasons than patients being so sick that everything is futile.