The future of “health” care if liberals get their way:
An Oregon woman suffering from lung cancer was notified by the state-run Oregon Health Plan that their policy would not cover her life-extending cancer drug, telling her the health plan would cover doctor-assisted suicide instead.
Barbara Wagener discovered her lung cancer had recurred last month, the Register-Guard said. Her oncologist prescribed a drug called Tarceva, which could slow the cancer growth and extend her life.
The Oregon Health Plan notified Wagner that it would not cover the drug, but it would cover palliative care, which it said included assisted suicide.
“Treatment of advanced cancer that is meant to prolong life, or change the course of this disease, is not a covered benefit of the Oregon Health Plan,” said the letter Wagner received from LIPA, the Eugene company that administers the Oregon Health Plan in Lane County.
“I think it’s messed up,” Wagner said. She said she was particularly upset because the letter said doctor-assisted suicide would be covered.
“To say to someone, we’ll pay for you to die, but not pay for you to live, it’s cruel,” she said. “I get angry. Who do they think they are?”
A doctor appealed to Genentech, the company that markets Tarceva in the U.S., to cover Wagner’s medication. On Monday Wagner was told the company would cover the drug treatment for a year, after which she could re-apply for the drug.
“I am just so thrilled,” Wagner said. “I am so relieved and so happy.”
This is the inevitible outcome of government-run health care. You can talk all you want about greedy insurance companies, but the greediest and most Scrooge-like in existence is still afraid of a lawsuit…the government isn’t; and when it comes to budget-time, the need to provide care for the ill is balanced against the need to provide pay raises and perks for the people who run the government health care system. Guess which will come out on top?
There is no perfect solution, ever, in human affairs – given the fallen nature of mankind, there will always be laziness, sloppiness, greed and all the normal human vices. Mixed in, of course, with human greatness…but to think that you can fix a problem for good and all is stupd. And, finally, the larger a human enterprise is – the more it tries to do, that is – the more likely it is to fail. Trying to figure out what everyone from newborn to elderly needs for health care is beyond the capability of any human being, or even any group of human beings.
Obama and his Democrats propose to fix the problem. McCain and his Republicans propose to work out systems which will allow people to fix themselves up with health care. Obama’s program, however crafted not only will not work but it cannot work. McCain’s will work as well as can be achieved in human affairs. We have our choice this November – I choose to work with humanity as it is, not as liberals wish it were.
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