Posted on 07/19/2009 5:47:29 AM PDT by tobyhill
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?
If you can afford it, you probably would pay that much, or more, to live longer, even if your quality of life wasn’t going to be good. But suppose it’s not you with the cancer but a stranger covered by your health-insurance fund. If the insurer provides this man — and everyone else like him — with Sutent, your premiums will increase. Do you still think the drug is a good value? Suppose the treatment cost a million dollars. Would it be worth it then? Ten million? Is there any limit to how much you would want your insurer to pay for a drug that adds six months to someone’s life? If there is any point at which you say, “No, an extra six months isn’t worth that much,” then you think that health care should be rationed.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Agree I bet a lot of that will happen.
This country, founded on unbridled optimism by our founders, is now neutered and leaderless by this Zer0.
Pretty close.
We are fighting a Socialist/Marxist/Statist regime who has pulled all the plugs and will stop at nothing to destroy free market capitalism,our country and our way of life.
What we are now seeing however is that he can afford to totally compromise on each and every one of these bills and still destroy the country. He will probably cave on some issues begrudgingly to show support for his other commie supporters.
Take obmacare,if he compromises on any of the key tenets,massive taxing, assault on insurance companies,doctors, a huge budget cost,he still wins no matter what.
These Marxists got in power a little at a time,incrementally, and that is how they refine each and every one of these phony bills they put into place.
At the end of his term you can count on health care costing 3 or 4 times what the estimates are and everything he compromises on "now" will be slickly inserted into legislation during his midnight legislation sessions.
These people have no scruples,ethics, morals,only a Marxist/statist agenda that is on a huge roll and has few if any legislators smart enough to vote "No."
When you buy health insurance you cannot expect them to spend every penny THEY have to keep you alive. But the argument here is getting distorted- it is not how much YOU are willing to spend, it is how much of EVERYONE ELSES money you are willing to spend.
If there is a $one Trillion treatement that will keep you alive for another month is it worth it? - ok how about that next-door neighbor who always lets his dog crap on your lawn? Is it worth keeping him alive another month? OK then no one else will have any money to keep alive heart trasplant patients...
So WE ALL see the need for a cut-off point, or RATIONING.
The question is NOT that
The Question is do we let OUR DOCTORS and OUR HEALTH INSURANCE and OURSELVES decide, or do we let government bureaucrats decide (like that next-door neighbor who always lets his dog crap on your lawn- he works for the department of health, doesn't he?)
Everything else they say is just designed to get the rest of us thinking they are doing the right thing which of course they are not.
This is a terrible man. He uses faulty logic to justify a truly heartless point of view.
The Left wants to enslave the population and then give them only what they think is good for them and what will benefit the Leftist consolidation of power. It is a pyramid scheme where they see themselves at the top of the pyramid but they first must ensure that no one can upset their applecart. Hence the destruction of the economy, industry, energy and health care.
“So what if we could cure some people or extend their lives we are better off without so many people and look at the money we could save.”
The Left uses the fallacious argument that if we can’t afford something for everyone no one should have it. Sounds noble but it isn’t; it’s just a way to justify ratcheting down the standard of care, as others have said above “who controls how low that standard will go?”
My big question is who put these lamebrains in charge and are we going to let them move in and stay there?
No. But at least you have a contract and know what to expect for the money you pay. Unlike the Animal Farm scenario.
If his poll numbers keep dropping sooner rather than later "his" Congress will quickly desert him.
The great thing about being a liberal is you never have to say you are sorry. The bad thing(one of) is support is only an inch deep.
When you get too old and too sick, expect a visit from Obama’s Blueshirts in your hospital room...
You may check in, but you won’t check out!
Then it becomes time to seek out and destroy (or, better yet, slowly poison) said faceless socialist bureaucrats.
“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?”
If the patient has the $54k to spend to live another 6 months... great!
If the patient expects the taxpayers to foot the bill... forget it / drop dead!
Is it right to hold a gun to your neighbors head and expect them to pay for your medical problems?
What ever happened to (something along the lines of ) I will never live for the sake of another, nor ask another man to live for my sake?
Abolish Social Security.
Abolish Medicare / Medicaide.
Let the Free Market decide if a drug company will get away with selling a drug that cost $9k per month.
But the thing is that fewer and fewer people are reading, listening, and watching the Obama media
The NYT....enough said.
You probably used this example because we know the results... a statement similar to this about rape and rain brought us Ann Richards.
I watched it, too. The culture of death exploded in the late 60s, early 70s, and it steamrolls along unabated. Prime examples are the active, aggressive killing of the unborn AND the born, the most high-profile case being Terry Schiavo.
If an extra six months doesn’t matter, then soon they’ll be saying that an extra six YEARS doesn’t matter.
The best example of your point is the Salk-Sabin vaccine. Older Boomers remember the terror of polio, especially in the summer. My husband was among the very first schoolchildren to be vaccinated.
Will Singer be the first to volunteer to give up an extra sis months to save money?
I suggest he forego all health care in favor of a younger person with a bright future.
I saw this same mentality in the 1970s when health planning organizations sought to limit CAT scan machines because of their cost. Had their numbers prevailed, CAT scan machines would be available only at a few major medical centers and millions of people would not have the advantage of early diagnosis of cancers when they are very treatable. My wife is alive today because a routine CAT scan looking for something else found a cancerous tumor on her kidney in time for it to be successfully removed before it spread. Had CAT scans not been available or had long lines of patients waiting for scans she would never have gotten that early diagnosis and would not be alive today.
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