So Much for a Culture of Life
Written by Sam on July 30th, 2008Wow. What kind of heathens are in the Oregon State Legislature?
Some terminally ill patients in Oregon who turned to their state for health care were denied treatment and offered doctor-assisted suicide instead, a proposal some experts have called a “chilling” corruption of medical ethics.
Since the spread of his prostate cancer, 53-year-old Randy Stroup of Dexter, Ore., has been in a fight for his life. Uninsured and unable to pay for expensive chemotherapy, he applied to Oregon’s state-run health plan for help.
Lane Individual Practice Association (LIPA), which administers the Oregon Health Plan in Lane County, responded to Stroup’s request with a letter saying the state would not cover Stroup’s pricey treatment, but would pay for the cost of physician-assisted suicide.
“It dropped my chin to the floor,” Stroup told FOX News. “[How could they] not pay for medication that would help my life, and yet offer to pay to end my life?”
The letter, which has been sent to other terminal patients throughout Oregon, follows guidelines established by the state legislature.
This is precisely what we can expect from a universal health care system if God forbid we ever end up with that here in the United States. When it gets to be too expensive, they’ll just let you die. It already happens in Britain.
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Sam, have you done any fact checking on this story?
Because, I did… And it appears that, Oregon does NOT have State Run Health Care
“The passage of SB 329 in the 2007 Legislature created the Oregon Health Trust. HCAO has reservations about the plan but it has the potential to be a transitional step towards more comprehensive reform. Oregon Health Fund Board members are now discussing details of how the system could work and will present the finalized plan to the 2009 Legislature, which will probably refer it to voters in November 2009. It is critical that citizens contact the Board to make sure that the reforms address key concerns.”
http://www.healthcareforalloregon.org/
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Randy Stroup was probably on a program through the County Health Dept. or a State Agency, such as Health and Human Services.
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“When it gets to be too expensive, they’ll just let you die. It already happens in Britain.”
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Britain?! Are you serious? It already happens here!
The mortality rate from breast cancer in the US is *twice* as high for an uninsured woman as for an insured woman.
The 2000 estimate was that 18,000 unnecessary deaths occurred because of lack of access to proper care due to lack of insurance. And there are considerably more uninsured now than there were in 2000.
I read a story in a medical journal about a professional woman in Texas who was literally told to plan her funeral. She had changed jobs just as she was diagnosed with cancer, and was uninsured at the time of the diagnosis. Programs available for the underinsured would not cover the chemotherapy. She appealed to the state for help and they finally agreed to intervene…she received notice of their decision in the mail the day after she died.
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There are multiple cancer centers in the US that treat the uninsured. Many of them are the best clinical cancer research facilities in the world. This is the benefit of having hospitals that are privately funded by endowments. Say goodbye to that when we socialize it all.
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Why not publish a list of these facilities Dave. I would love to check them out.
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MD Anderson, Dana Farber, Beth Isreal, Sloan-Kettering, Hillman, the Mayo centers across the country….etc. There are many, many, many. For example, MD Anderson has their own private jet and hotel for their underpriveledged patients, and routinely treat the homeless that have any type of cancer. What a terrible country we live in where a homeless woman with metastatic colon cancer living on the streets of Houston TX is treated at the world’s premiere cancer center!
Barry must save us!
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Again… Do you guys fact check anything. Dave is wrong (correct actually)! Here is one example of what he got wrong (correct):
Mayo Clinic on Uninsured Patients
Uninsured patients are required to deposit the estimated cost of scheduled services in advance of receiving services. If additional testing, physician consultations or hospital admissions are necessary, additional deposits will be required.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/billing-sct/uninsured.html
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Here are the next two paragraphs from your link:
Mayo Clinic provides numerous services to meet the needs of patients who are unable to pay for care. This assistance includes helping people find sources to fund their care, using fair and consistent collection practices that are in the best interest of all parties involved, and providing hardship financing terms, charity care and opportunities to work with outside agencies. Of course, emergency care is provided to stabilize patients, regardless of their ability to pay. For those who do not qualify for charitable care, Mayo provides individualized payment plans based on the patient’s ability to make payments.
If you are experiencing financial hardship, please click on this link for information about Charity Care
You have completely lost the argument that the uninsured have nowhere to go for treatment. As much as you want this country to be a terrible place, it is not….despite americans like you.
I think we demonstrated your brilliance a few months ago when you tried to debate “fairness” and “windfall profits” by tossing up a wikipedia link. I suggest finding a website more appropriate for your intellect.
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Because you are an IDIOT who doesn’t know the definition of “Wind Fall Profits”… and I am lacking intelligence? Hahaha, too funny. Try getting your information right in the beginning instead of pulling it out of your ass, like you usually do. It is very easy to fact check. Instead, you just post B.S..
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I love how this site has ZERO CREDABILITY…
Notice how Dave was able to add the word “correct” in parentheses to my about post, from August 4th, 2008 at 1:33 pm.
Just goes to show how much you have in common with the Bush Administration
You guy’s are Pathetic!
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Let’s see here… Dave destroys your argument by pulling up the next two paragraphs from something that you posted and you call HIM an “IDIOT” who pulls stuff out of his ass? Are you illiterate or can you simply not handle it when you’re proven wrong?
OK, I see how it is… we’re like the “Bush administration,” (I guess that is supposed to imply that BusHitler controls the media or some other whacky idea from the Far Left) because someone who is a Moderator on our site pokes fun at a commenter by inserting in her comment the fact that he was right and she was wrong.
Sorry sweetie, you’re not a moderator here, you gotta take some teasing sometimes. Get over it.
And quit cherry-picking paragraphs from your sources… who’s manipulating information now, huh?
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Please define what a windfall profit is for us.
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No where does it state that Mayo Clinic treats uninsured patients for Free. They guide you to Financial planning to set up payment plans or to Govt. Agencies… That you must be poverty stricken enough to qualify for (and you must have minor children to qualify for Medicaid.) Most are actually turned away unless they pay a deposit for each procedure needed. And they DON’T treat the terminally ill at all unless insured!
The entire post is BOGUS!
The guy in Oregon was NOT offered assisted suicide, nor does the State have any type of Universial Health Care Program.
Nor do any of the facilities that Dave posted treat the Uninsured for Free (unless they qualify for program being funded though research, or an endowment.) Those are few and far between.
Considering that in California alone 1 in 4 people (including Children) don’t have health care. In the US only 60 percent of employers provide health care benefits (cafeteria plan) to their employees…. So even hard working Americans fall through the cracks. Insurance premiums have risen 76% percent since 2001 for those not covered by a group plan.
Dave, you still don’t know what a wind fall profit is…. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, WHAT A JOKE YOU ARE!
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Oh yeah… Yellow Jacket I posted the link to the article thinking you guys might be smart enough to read the entire article without it being cut and pasted on the message board in its entirety.
Love how you had nothing to say about the moderators editing posts on this board. Like I said before you losers have ZERO CREDIBILITY!
[UPDATED, from YellowJacket (because this is fun)]: Actually, I did point out that you are not a moderator, and we are. Kinda like how I am editing this right now to prove it.
You have no excuse for posting a link and obviously cherry-picking paragraphs from it - that’s disingenous and in the end, once you got caught, damages your credibility on anything.
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Nobody knows what a windfall profit is because you can’t define it, which is Dave’s point… I’d like to see you demand excess taxation on the many, many industries and companies that make higher profit margins than domestic oil companies.
The point of the matter is, there is no such thing as “excess” profit, but there is certainly amongst some folks in this country the desire to target specific industries or boogeymen for short-term political gain.
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Yellow Jacket, It is no wonder that you have no traffic on this site. Seems like everyone that posts a reply here, are “Moderators”. You guys are such losers it is hilarious.
[Response by YellowJacket, because I can :)]: Man, taunts about me being a loser really affect this debate and my consideration of your ideas. Oh wait, no they don’t.
PS… Most blog sites don’t allow the posting of an entire article. You can get expelled for doing so. But, you guys are such amateurs… it would figure that you wouldn’t know the rules of blogging.
[YellowJacket]: I’m well aware of what you can and can’t post, and for that matter how to blog, but once again, thanks for the insults. Doesn’t change the fact that you clearly disingenously cherry picked your information and when called out on it, just resorted to name-calling. You are such a classy individual, it is mind-boggling.
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Tally-Im very sorry that you have the outlook on this country that you do. Maybe in another life you will live in a totalitarian country where your opinion is met with a years time in a re-education camp. Or maybe you will live in the stone age where “evil industry” doesnt deliver safe food and water to you and your family. Perhaps you will have a debilitating disease, and there will be no scientists and doctors to help you, because the “evil pharma/medical complex” doesnt exist. Whatever the case, you are more than welcome to your hideous world view, but your endless tearing down of all things american is nothing short of tedious, and your 10-year old level of debate is boring. So either get a new gig, or get the hell out of here.
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Dave, I am very sorry that you are a giant A$$hole. One day you may get over hating your fellow Human Beings, and relishing the thought of those less fortunate than you suffering from diseases, because of a lack of quality Health Care for all of God’s Children. You probably take pleasure in seeing the Elderly being abused in nursing homes and starving Children or Homeless War Heroes. I hope you don’t consider yourself a Christian!
Do you think your caring more about Money that Human Life would impress God?
People like you disgust me.
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Ah, yes, now we have the claim that someone who opposes government-run, “single-payer” healthcare isn’t Christian, or is a bad person, or is disgusting.
Give me a break.
Private charity is a wonderful thing, several examples of which were given to you by Dave himself. Government should be there as a last resort, as a safety-net, if you will. Not as the answer to everyone’s ailments.
You chose to ignore those paragraphs of help that the clinics provide because they didn’t fit into your meme of how evil America and its citizens are.
Point is, people flock to the U.S. for healthcare and pay more money for it, because it’s BETTER. Doctors come over here and practice because they have more INCENTIVE to do so.
Nowhere did I see Dave suggest that the elderly or sick should lay dying in the streets, and your use of that ridiculous emotionally charged metaphor to prove a point that you can’t even begin to understand is useless.
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I love how the Socialists invoke God when they are trying to pimp their Marxism, but at every other chance they do their best to push him out of the public light.