Why We Must Ration Healthcare

The New York Times Magazine ^ | 7-15-09 | Peter Singer

[SCalGal]

You have advanced kidney cancer. It will kill you, probably in the next year or two. A drug called Sutent slows the spread of the cancer and may give you an extra six months, but at a cost of $54,000. Is a few more months worth that much?

[Parley Baer]

Peter Singer is trying to play God.

[darkwing104]

History repeating itself.

[SCalGal]

Here’s the “arguement” FOR rationing. Interesting comments at the link.

[WestwardHo]

Ask Ted Kennedy

[doc1019]

Is a few more months worth that much?

Ask the person who is dying of cancer.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

I’ve got a better idea.

Let’s ration food.

And we’ll start but cutting off Peter “I’ll Say Anything For Attention” Singer’s supply.

Shortly after that failed attempt at providing equal food distribution to all, we’ll cease the program.

[SCalGal]

Peter Singer is trying to play God.

He seems to have deluded himself into thinking he is God.

[Bhoy]

Everything in life is rationed — by price, favoritism, luck. So the question is who should do the rationing?

Socialist/commies/leftists will ration us all according to some formula (elite exempted of course). No system or formula will always work under all circumstances. But, the free market will more equitably ration available resources according to who saved, planned worked hard and made good choices.

Without spending a dime of taxpayer money free market strategies could vastly reduce our healthcare costs. Insurance reform, tort reform, tax rebates to doctors for pro bono and unpaid treatment, stopping the fraud inherent in government organizations, and limiting service to non-citizens.

[Minipax]

Good old Singer. Captain infanticide.

[Caipirabob]

Why We Must Ration Healthcare

Because the Nazis thought it was a grand idea?

Sorry, but that doesn't cut it for me, and the person who tries to justify this should not be breathing free American air. Best that they leave. Now.

[Talisker]

No one - absolutely no one - wants so badly to use health care policy to kill millions of people as Peter Singer. It’s literally his life’s work.

That said, isn’t it interesting that these Leftist murderers use economics as a moral high ground when it comes to rationalizing the witholding of health care, but when free market economic alternatives to government takeover is suggested (including deregulation) they immediately scream that economic approaches are immoral?

For these collectivist maniacs, it’s all about the killing. Nothing else.

[Safrguns]

>>> Ask Ted Kennedy

hehe... ouch!

[jiminycricket000]

You can't put a price on human life. Anyone who attempts to do that is an evil, selfish son of a bitch. When the author of this article comes face to face with a terminal illness, and he certainly will one day, then let him tell us how much money his life is worth.

[Diogenesis]

Advice: see a REAL oncologist or two,
BUT not one of Obama's FAKE doctors.

<>

---

"Patterico Busts TX Grad Student/Obama Delegate Posing As Doctor; Chron Doesn't Credit, Still Disclosure-Challenged
Ms. Mayer, who claimed to be a doctor when she spoke at a town hall meeting held by Houston Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.
... At first, the Houston Chronicle took Mayer's word that she is a doctor, failed to investigate her bona fides"

---

"Obama camp plants fake doc, Che fan at Jackson Lee forum
One supporter, Dr. Roxana Mayer, a physician who does not live in Jackson Lee’s district, praised the reform plan for overhauling a broken system.
“I don’t know what there is in the bill that creates such panic,” she said.
In this video, Mayer claims to be a general practitioner, eliciting applause and even a hug from Queen Sheila:
.... Roxana Mayer is, like, totally not a doctor.
... her name does not appear in the database maintained by the Texas Medical Board, which licenses all doctors in Texas.
But she is an Obama campaign volunteer."

[ikka]

How does he treat his own mother? My understanding is that he pays for whatever she needs, even though he realizes that his behavior is at odds with his intellectual position.

[GeronL]

Peter Singer has a very long history of wanting mass death

[Nosterrex]

Peter Singer doesn’t believe in God, but he doesn’t have any problems playing Him. Remember that Singer doesn’t look at human beings any differently than any other animal. Putting a human out of his missery should be no different than putting a dog out of his. His view is that until an animal is intellectually developed enough to be conscious of his surroundings it has no “rights” to life. This includes human infants. Singer gave the example that if your new born baby and your pet dog were in a burning house, and you could only save one, you should save the dog and leave the baby. Singer is the person influencing the Obamacare plan.

[swain_forkbeard]

“Ask the person who is dying of cancer.”

Or ask the person paying the $54,000.

[rlmorel]

"...Is a few more months worth that much?"

WHO THE F*CK ARE YOU TO MAKE THAT DETERMINATION HOW MUCH A FEW MORE MONTHS ARE TO SOMEONE?

These arrogant SOB's REALLY piss me off.

[SCalGal]

Remember that Singer doesn’t look at human beings any differently than any other animal. Putting a human out of his missery should be no different than putting a dog out of his.

Ingrid Newkirk (PeTA): A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.

They are all sick, sick, sick.

[bornred]

But, the free market will more equitably ration available resources according to who saved, planned worked hard and made good choices.

For the dregs of society who vote for people like BO, this is an outcome that must be avoided at all costs. Life's losers will not be satisfied until they can make everybody else as miserable as they are.

Not surprisingly, almost everything on BO's agenda is designed to take us in that direction.

[goat granny]

Good ole Pete can talk about his end of life, not someone else’s...Where do these dim bulbs come from?

[EGPWS]

History repeating itself.

If you are an American Jew and are dirty, take a bath don't take a shower.

[SCalGal]

Mayer looks like Judie Mancuso (the H$U$ backed manditory spay/neuter nut).

[goat granny]

For the collectivist it is all about killing someone else. Not them.

[doc1019]

Oh well, just let him die then.

[boatbums]

This is the same Peter Singer that espouses waiting until a baby is two years old until parents can decide if they want to abort! The child may have some kind of disability or something that disqualifies him from being “human” and therefore entitled to rights. Shows you how Singer and his ilk, like Hitler and Margaret Sanger, think. I wonder if the life-extending medication was for himself or one of his loved ones (assuming he is capable of that emotion), he would still insist on rationing?

Besides, giving someone more time to live should never be based on money, else why would pharmaceuticals have bothered creating a drug that was too expensive to utilize? Six months could be the difference in another discovery that would cure the disease or cause remission. His kind of thinking IS like playing God!

[Salgak]

The Liberals haven’t thought it through. OK, we have to ration health care, and stop expensive treatments for those who will die of it anyway.

And then ACT-UP and the rest of the Gays realize that THEY are on the rationed list as well . . . .

This should be fun to watch. . . .

[antceecee]

People like this look at the glass as half empty. Their own pessimism supports contraction rather than expansion of services and opportunity.
They love to create a “shortage” and then exploit it to achieve their true goal, which is SOCIALISM.

[wendy1946]

There are a half dozen or so very simple things we could do which would lower health care costs so drastically that nobody would even be talking about rationing. The most obvious and major of such things would be to eliminate the BS lawsuits which double or triple our costs of medicine. The idea would be to eliminate medical lawsuits while simultaneously establishing a fund to pay real victims of malpractice for real losses, and a rational way to weed out bad doctors.

That of course would be violently opposed by the trial lawyers' guild which is one of the major pillars of financial support fot the demoKKKrat party, but the big mystery to me is why pubbies and others aren't talking about this.

[rlmorel]

My dad had a stroke in June 2000, and passed away in November of that year. He was completely incapacitated by that stroke. He had a lot of medical intervention to keep him alive, get him through rehab (at least the attempt) and were able to bring him home eventually.

Those five months were worth five years. We all got a chance to learn more about my dad the way he dealt with it, even thought he coudn't eat, walk, sit up or do more than move one arm.

That time we got was valuable beyond anything. According to people like Singer and Ezekiel Emanuel, care to people like my dad would be severely "attenuated".

Chief Heathcare Advisor to Obama and brother of Rahm Emanuel.

"Services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed. An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia."

THIS statement above is made by the chief healthcare advisor to the President of The United States, the person who is pushing this legislation harder than anyone.

As I said in another thread, it is a disquieting fact that the people who are crafting this legislation, beginning with the person who is pushing it the hardest, have no problem with the concept of aborting a 8 3/4 month baby that unexpectedly refuses to die, then leaving it gasping out its short life on a steel table in a linen closet without even a comforting hand to let it know that its short spark of life touched someone.

I am not making it into an abortion issue. But the point remains that when we surrender our choices to legislation created by those people like Emanuel, Singer and Obama, we all can be that doomed child.

[SCalGal]

And then ACT-UP and the rest of the Gays realize that THEY are on the rationed list as well . . . .

This should be fun to watch. . . .

I've got popcorn and a lawn chair ready.

[Mr. Silverback]

Or ask the person paying the $54,000.

Ah, but that falls into Singer's trap...and Obama's. If we reformed our medical system so that it was a true free market instead of a kludge personally designed for failure by The Swimmer, the person dying of cancer and the person paying the bill would be the same person in the vast majority of cases.

Don't play their game. We need to make this about running our own lives, not money.

[bareford101]

if peter singer was dying, wonder how much he would be willing to pay for the medicines? IMO, his life is not worth very much. He has done more harm than good to the world, again, IMO. His value comes nNo where near my family, who care for one another, so I guess it just comes down to “who needs the medicine”.

[TASMANIANRED]

Let the liberals volunteer to be first in line.

When we find out how well it works for them then the rest of us can talk about it.

[SCalGal]

I am very sorry for your loss.

And happy that you got those final months.

[skimbell]

As is the SOP with just about any of these issues, libtards will bite the bullet and make these tough decisions for all of us regular people, but, as is the case with Algore riding around in his private jet or floating around in his fuel guzzling houseboat bitching about everyone else's carbon footprint, these matters concern only the unenlightened and never were intended to apply to the anointed class.

No cost will be too much to extend their miserable life.

Phoney phackers!

[Always Right]

hmmmm, after call Palin an idiot for suggest ‘death panels’ are created under Obamacare, the New York Times explains why Palin was exactly right.

[CharlesWayneCT]

What difference does it make to the Government? If I can find an insurance company who would cover me for that drug in that circumstance, and I pay for that insurance, then it is between me and my insurance company.

If I can simply pay for the drug out of my pocket, it is between me and my bank account.

But if the person who needs that drug is some poor black guy, you can bet the liberals will be telling the drug company that they have to give the drug away for free because otherwise they are racist.

[Charlespg]

Didn't we send people to the gallows at numenburg for this kind of crap?

***** singer

The rest is self deleted

[lonestar]

I wonder how much has been spent on Ted Kennedy since he was dianosed with a brain tumor...my guess at least two hundred thousand so far.

[Kellis91789]

He starts from the assumption that somebody ELSE will be paying for the dying person’s treatment — insurance or government.

He completely ignores the other road we could take — completely free markets. Eliminate Medicare, loosen the restrictions on medical schools and licensing of doctors from other countries, and tort reform to eliminate the ass-covering unnecessary procedures. Allow insurers to clearly define what procedures they will and won’t be liable for in their plans. That’s a free market.

The way insurance distances the beneficiary from the cost of drugs and procedures has made pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and lawyers rich at the expense of patients and taxpayers.

[SCalGal]

...my guess at least two hundred thousand so far.

I'm sure it's way over that..... bed space alone has probably cost more than that.

[Mr. Silverback]

And then ACT-UP and the rest of the Gays realize that THEY are on the rationed list as well . . . .

They won't be. Mark my words. Perversion will never be regarded as a health hazard by this government, no matter how the science looks.

[Curious George1978]

Why in the world is the drug company ALLOWED to charge $54,000 for the drug in the first place????????? There’s the problem!

I have often thought...when I bought my first microwave oven, my first computer, my first digital watch and so on and so on...the cost was extremely high. After a reasonable period of time these costs ALL came DOWN. Hmmm, why haven’t any of the cost come down in the medical field? WHY???

[rolling_stone]

Government employees who can be subject to political pressure like the bailouts should not have any say in rationing. It is politicizing life or death decisions.

[Mr. Silverback]

Bingo!

[Yardstick]

Everything in life is rationed — by price, favoritism, luck. So the question is who should do the rationing? Socialist/commies/leftists will ration us all according to some formula (elite exempted of course). No system or formula will always work under all circumstances. But, the free market will more equitably ration available resources according to who saved, planned worked hard and made good choices.

Well put.

[SCalGal]

Why in the world is the drug company ALLOWED to charge $54,000 for the drug in the first place????????? There’s the problem!

Free market - or what *should* be a free market, and reseach costs.