No, philanthropist Bill Gates didn’t say death panels ‘will soon be required’

Microsoft Corp. co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates did not attend the recent annual Group of 20 meeting in Bali, according to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. But that hasn’t stopped misinformation from spreading about Gates’ alleged remarks at that event. 

"Bill Gates tells G20 world leaders that ‘death panels’ will soon be required," reads a Nov. 17 Instagram post that includes an image of Gates speaking. "Unelected world health czar Bill Gates has used his appearance at the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, to raise a discussion about ‘death panels.’ According to Gates, death panels will be necessary in the near future in order to end the lives of sick and unwell people due to ‘very, very high medical costs.’" 

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The image of Gates was not taken at the G20 summit, which, again his foundation says he didn’t attend. It’s a Bloomberg News photo that was published with an Oct. 16 story from the publication — before the summit — about Gates’ pledge to spend $1.2 billion to try to end the poliovirus. 

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Gates shared the Bloomberg News photo and article about a month ago on his LinkedIn account, writing, "Last week, I sat down with Bloomberg News to talk about why I remain so committed to eradicating polio."

Gates mentioned "death panels," in 2010 during a conversation about education and health care systems at the Aspen Institute Ideas Festival in Colorado. Gates was talking about weighing spending on education and health care when he said, "There’s also a lack of willingness to say is spending $10 million on that last month of life on that patient, would it be better to lay off those 10 teachers and make that up in medical costs? That is called the ‘death panel’ and you’re not supposed to have that discussion." 

He didn’t say anything else about death panels, least of all that they would "soon be required," as the post says. 

We rate claims that Gates made such a statement at the recent G20 summit Pants on Fire!