A Panel Decides Washington State’s Health Care Costs

The New York Times ^ | March21, 2011 | Andrew Pollack

[ConjunctionJunction]

SEATTLE — The health care board was in session, and Deryk Lamb was pleading for them to continue paying for the spinal injections he receives to dull the pain from a workplace injury.

“My life would be a living hell without these injections,” said Mr. Lamb, a 44-year-old carpenter from Lake Stevens, Wash., who was crushed between two trucks in 1996. “I don’t deserve to be sentenced by a committee to a life of agony.”

Mr. Lamb was testifying on Friday before Washington State’s Health Technology Assessment committee. The committee has authority under state law to determine which medical devices and procedures Washington will cover for state employees, Medicaid patients and injured workers, about 750,000 people in all.

[ConjunctionJunction]

These aren't the death panels you've been looking for...

/sarc

[scooby321]

I am shocked that the New York Times wrote this article.

[Nervous Tick]

>> These aren’t the death panels you’ve been looking for...

Nope, these are “suffering panels”. Sort of a “death panel” pilot project. ;-)

[bill1952]

He has to be white.

This will not happen otherwise.
When these get set up & running add another weapon in the battle to exterminate us.
They already have abortion & homosexuality.

[ConjunctionJunction]

Perhaps a new application for the “misery index”?

;)

[DrC]

“They already have abortion & homosexuality.”

Indeed. Washington State is not one of those states that restricts abortions in health plans for public employees.
http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_RICA.pdf

In short, they’re happy to dole out money for baby-killing, but when it comes to sparing workers from pain, a committee has to weigh in...It’s a safe bet this committee has no power to restrict abortion coverage.

[DUMBGRUNT]

to dull the pain from a workplace injury

Why is the state paying for a workplace accident?

[Rocky]

“Rationing is where you know you need something and without it you are going to suffer but there’s not enough to go around,” she offered as a definition. In this case, she said, the program denied coverage for procedures that have simply not been shown to work.

Elsewhere in the article, it says arthroscopic knee surgery was not approved. Seems to contradict the woman's contention that they are only disapproving procedures which have not been shown to work.