Health Country

There is a new RX cure for life threatening medical conditions. The new prescription is, Assisted Suicide as medical care. Currently Oregon and Washington state are the only two states to legalize doctor-assisted suicide. I’m not going to debate the merits of doctor-assisted suicide. I’ll leave that for your conscience to decide. I am however referencing this for what I am about to tell you next.

Imagine your doctor checks you over and says “You have cancer.” Now imagine your government run health care plan won’t pay for the treatment because in their opinion the treatment is too expensive and not cost effective. Your doctor pulls out his or her prescription pad and says, “they will offer a quick, cheap and painless death.” “This prescription of barbiturates to end your life will cost you less than $100.00.”

You don’t believe that this can happen? It already has. Meet Randy Stroup from Dexter, Oregon. At 53 years of age Randy has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Randy received a letter from the “Lane Individual Practice Association” which administers the Oregon health plan in Lane County, Oregon. The letter stated his cancer is too advanced to warrant a pricey treatment. The state was willing to cover his prescription for doctor-assisted suicide. They wouldn’t pay for the treatment and medication to possibly save his life but they would pay to end his life.

Barbara Wagner, another Oregonian, also has cancer. She too received a letter from the Oregon health plan in Lane County, notifying her that her treatment was too expensive. The letter stated, “treatment of advanced cancer that is meant to prolong life or change the course of the disease, is not a covered benefit of the Oregon health plan.” However, “the plan does pay for comfort care or physician aid in dying.” This same letter has gone out to other terminally ill patients throughout Oregon.

Oregon doesn’t cover life prolonging treatment unless there is a “better than 5% chance” it will help patients “live longer than 5 years.” Imagine this is your son or daughter or your spouse. I’ll take the 5% chance of survival. You’ll find people all over this country who have defied these odds.

Managed care plans aside, private health insurance plans pay for your treatment. This is what insurance is supposed to be about. Who are the legislatures to decide who lives and who dies. They all have great private health insurance that pays these expenses. The plan is paid mostly by us with our tax dollars. They have a choice of the finest doctors.

Senator Ted Kennedy is battling brain cancer. On the Oregon run health plan he would already be dead. He would have been given his prescription for doctor-assisted suicide. But Senator Kennedy is privileged to have the finest doctors and the finest health insurance coverage.

Health provisions have already slipped into the stimulus package. The government will monitor your treatment and make sure your doctor is doing what they determine is appropriate and cost effective. As we get closer to government run health care could the Oregon plan become the model in other states?

Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

By: Larry Bofman

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. This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 at 7:46 am and is filed under Health County. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.