Whenver I hear either of our presidential candidates shouting about health care reform I get a prickling senstion in my palms and a pronounced tic in my left eye. It’s not that we don’t have a need for health care and insurance improvements in our country – clearly there is work to be done. But I’ve been watching and participating in elections since Nixon’s day and all too often I’ve gawked as our Federal government’s well intentioned but ham handed attempts to “fix things” turn into a case of Ferdinand the bull trampling the flowers he was attempting to sniff.
I had another of those queasy sensations reading Lady’s Logic this morning, with a tale of woe from Barbara Wagner, a woman in Oregon suffering from cancer, who had to face off with the medical community.
Last month her lung cancer, in remission for about two years, was back. After her oncologist prescribed a cancer drug that could slow the cancer growth and extend her life, Wagner was notified that the Oregon Health Plan wouldn’t cover it.
It would cover comfort and care, including, if she chose, doctor-assisted suicide.
I would not blame our loyal readers if you thought that, by following the link above, you were about to either be Rickrolled or sent to The Onion, but the story is real. And it goes downhill from there. As the Lady Logician herself points out:
According to administrators of the state run plan, treatment of advanced cancer that is meant to prolong life or change the course of the disease is not covered. Excuse me….isn’t that why we WANT health care….to prolong our lives and change the course of diseases? No???? Silly me – what was I thinking????
This isn’t a case of bad doctors. This is a system following rules meant to improve the process which wind up veering off into realms better suited to science fiction. Follow the links and read on, my friends. Reality truly trumps cinema today.