We've all heard variations on the story before, older patients pushed into hospice care or given death drugs when they were ill, but not terminally ill. But this woman was by some accounts terminally ill, with cancer, and the drug that her doctor thought would save her cost $4000 a month.
But the Oregon HMO could have been far more tactful than its real life behavior- offering to spend $50 to help her commit suicide, while refusing to cover the therapy that would have allowed the former waitress to live.
On the other hand, Obama's grandmother got an expensive hip replacement, while terminally ill.
Where do you draw the line?
Death Drugs Cause Uproar in Oregon: Terminally Ill Denied Drugs for Life, But Can Opt for Suicide
"The news from Barbara Wagner's doctor was bad, but the rejection letter from her insurance company was crushing.
The 64-year-old Oregon woman, whose lung cancer had been in remission, learned the disease had returned and would likely kill her. Her last hope was a $4,000-a-month drug that her doctor prescribed for her, but the insurance company refused to pay.
What the Oregon Health Plan did agree to cover, however, were drugs for a physician-assisted death. Those drugs would cost about $50.
"It was horrible," Wagner told ABCNews.com. "I got a letter in the mail that basically said if you want to take the pills, we will help you get that from the doctor and we will stand there and watch you die. But we won't give you the medication to live."
Here are some interesting links..
Euthanasia page at Kaiser Papers .org
Covert Rationing Blog (Medical profession and the issue of covert rationing discussed from their perspective!)
Note: I like to get people thinking. Don't take it as some kind of an attack. Many people who I would otherwise agree with do. I want health reform, no let me rephrase that, I need it, Its a matter of life or death for me. Like it is for many others. Superficial reform wont help me. I need real reform because I have real issues.
So, I need to think outside of the box. We need to take our blinders off an look at how the rest of the world does things. Increasingly, that's where the innovation is.
That should tell us something.
We are committing long term economic as well as physical suicide by putting our wagons in a circle as we are.
It's very important to talk about these things.
Obviously, Obama has been on the side of rationing from the beginning,
I know that some rationing is necessary, BUT I just think that the rationing should not be aggressively intended to preserve the profits of the corporate masters at the expense of quality health care for all.
That's what we see more and more, and its getting worse quickly.
The government and the HMO industry are conspiring to reduce the standard of care.
They are covering it up with propaganda, but they can't hide the fact that outcomes are terrible and getting worse quickly.
The government should stop its courting of the really odious HMO industry and instead, face the reality that we need real, not superficial changes.
With insurers, they arguably cannot be reformed, the US business model of deliberately trying to avoid real care is wrong, that the cut that they take is too large, and that their presence does not serve any purpose except to insulate the government from these moral hazards at a huge cost.
If we eliminated that cost, we could substantially reduce the moral hazard BY PROVIDING VERY HIGH QUALITY CARE IN REALITY.. not just pretending that we did!
If we eliminated that huge amount of cost, we could begin to reduce the costs of the burden of disease as a whole.
We need different legislators to tackle this, ones who are not so beholden to special interests who don't have the nation's best interests at heart.
There is no kind way to say this.
Other nations make far different choices. I think the US is really avoiding some important decisions and I think some here's attacks on me are really intended to cover up the very important criticisms that many people are making about our distressingly inadequate response to a very ugly and difficult challenge.
For example, look at this web page on the manipulation of medical testing and lowering of the medical standard of care..
This has to stop. There are a huge number of Americans who have multiple chronic infectious diseases and the medical profession is not helping them get better because of the cost, but its not going to be possible if we deny that its happening.
Look at Lyme disease, for example.. or Epstein-Barr, or many others.. Look at the medical literature and the methods of addressing problems. Look at the politics that increasingly is involved. It boils down to an ugly trend towards a situation where Europeans get treatment, Americans don't. Americans don't even get diagnoses.
This is happening in many areas..
Heavy metal poisoning, toxic exposures, communicable disease, etc. They are far more common than we admit. Addressing and reducing chronic illness effectively and economically requires changes in how we think.
Its doable but it requires small but significant changes in how we do things. For example, did you know stress is a major driver of obesity. That stress causes permanent brain damage? Something to think about when we decide how to structure health reform, don't you think? But, even as the evidence piles up, there's major denial. Another similar problem is climate change and illnesses.
Many illnesses are increasing because of climate change. But, do we admit that? No.
Addressing some of these problems in measurable and affordable ways IS eminently doable.
Many of these issues are treatable, many inexpensively..
We need a systematic approach.. If we do that, THE WHOLE NATION WILL GET SUBSTANTIALLY HEALTHIER