Posted on 08/19/2009 8:05:53 PM PDT by PhatHead
So, President Obama is going to make an emotional and moral appeal? Im sure it will include many anecdotes about the struggles of various people trying to get insurance, or pay their medical bills. Isnt it long past time to stop using sad stories to sell abhorrent policies? Because you know what? If your aim is to eliminate all the sad stories, you will never be done reforming.
Just to keep in the spirit of things, I have a health care sad story, but its one I dont think he can use.
A little over five years ago, my son was diagnosed with brain cancer. He underwent a ten hour, microscope-guided brain surgery. He received six weeks of total brain and spine radiation, followed by 10 months of very intensive chemotherapy. After all of that, his cancer returned. He underwent another surgery, more radiation, a form of chemotherapy that could only be described as savage, and a bone marrow transplant. That did not work either. So he began another, somewhat more experimental therapy that his body simply could not tolerate. We traveled to other cities and states, got him into another clinical trial, and even tried many other, unconventional therapies.
During his five year battle, my son received at least 50 MRI scans, countless physical exams, many gallons of blood transfusions, at least three extended stays in ICU, a couple of near-death experiences, at least seven minor surgeries, and daily handfuls of prescription drugs for many, many months.
Also during this time, I changed jobs twice, and insurance companies four times. We paid our full, annual out-of-pocket maximum at least six times in five years. Not everything was covered fully, and we had to pay for a lot of of things in cash, despite being fully insured. I also took several months of unpaid leave from work. The total cost of his care was many hundreds of thousands of dollars, with tens of thousands of that out-of-pocket.
And I would gladly pay it all, and more, again. I would gladly sell everything I own, declare bankruptcy, and spend the rest of my days in debtors prison if it meant curing my sons terrible illness.
But that was never, as it turns out, one of our options. You see, although treatments have become more successful over the years, the sad truth is that there is still no cure for cancer. Despite the best doctors and the best care in the world; despite many treatments and tests our young president might well have deemed unnecessary, my son died earlier this year.
In retrospect, I suppose you could say that all of his treatments were unnecessary. After all, none of them worked.
Only we dont live our lives in retrospect; we dont decide what is necessary, or even what is best, based solely on some oddsmakers calculation of the chance of success. As Americans, we expect to make our own free choices on how to spend our money, and how to live our lives. And some choose the the sanctity of life over some ephemeral, materialistic notion of the quality of life.
My son chose to live his life fighting until the end, never giving up simply because the odds against him were too great, or the treatments too debilitating. Just because he lost his battle does not mean it wasnt worth fighting - but that is exactly the sort of calculation that Obama seeks to mandate not to preserve dignity, but solely to save money.
But you know, if it isn't worth paying for, it isn't worth doing, it won't be tested, and it will never become the cure.
I am pretty sure Mr. Obama will not use my sad story in one of his speeches. There is not much in my story to recommend his idea of reform. His reform wouldnt have helped my son. His reform wont cure cancer. But that is not why I reject his plan. I dont expect the President of the United States to cure cancer (although I suspect many of his supporters believe that he could.)
I reject his plan, and the philosophy behind it, because it does not celebrate freedom, it does not encourage innovation, it does not honor the individual judgment of medical professionals or their patients, and, in the end, because of its singular dedication to saving material resources, it is profoundly anti-human.
You may say his plan would have saved me some of the money I paid out over the years, and I have no doubt that is true.
But thats savings I can do without. There are worse things than being broke.
I’ll say a prayer for you tonight, KC. You know how it really is, and how it ought to be.
Your story is very similar to mine. My son gave it his all to live, but it was not to be. For us though, there was St Jude, where he was treated free of charge for three years, and given all the latest treatments available at the time. St Jude treats children with catastrophic illnesses, and they do it by relying on donations and philanthropic foundation money. As far as I know they do not get government money.
St. Jude does wonderful work. We did not go to St. Jude’s, but our hospital, like the overwhelming majority of hospitals in America, it is not-for-profit. The first thing we were asked was “will you need help paying for this?” Not “show us your insurance or leave!”
I don’t know the life stories of all the people we saw in the waiting rooms over the years, but many of them did not speak English, and I suspect that they did not make a lot of money, and may not have had insurance. But there they were, with us, receiving the same state-of-the-art care.
God bless you, WVNan.
Thank you. We both belong to a most unfortunate club. The day doesn’t pass that some reminder is there. How brave they were, and how funny at times. I’ll always remember how my son was telling his friend about his ambulance ride to the hospital when he knew he was nearing the end. He was relating the ineptitude of the EMPs and had everyone laughing hysterically. He was 22 and the oldest patient that St Jude had ever treated because he had a cancer that usually strikes younger children and they wanted him there because they feared that the cancer was making a leap to older patients. He donated his body to the hospital for research. It was his decision. Freedom.
When we communicated with other parents of kids with recurrent brain tumors, we used to joke that we were "the parents nobody wants to be." A few months ago, at our son's grave, my wife and I mused that now we are "the parents that even the parents nobody wants to be don't want to be."
It is indeed an unfortunate club - would that membership could be closed...
You and your family have lived through a terrible nightmare. My heart breaks for you. Please know that researchers are working round the clock to find new and better treatments for all kinds of cancer. Your son won many battles over the years but lost the war. He was truly brave. Please know that there are people who are praying for you and yours right now. Peace be with you.
btt
Thanks for sharing your story and for being such a great dad to your dear son. I wish it would have worked out and I am glad you did everything that could be done. I would have done the same as you. I don’t want that love for life to change in our society.
God be with you. This world is sad but in the next you and your son will share in a love that is without measure.
That’s a compelling story you tell. Wow. Such difficult times.
Thank you. I’m sending out letters for them now. I do that every year to raise funds for them. Yes, it is a wonderful place. I will never forget how good they were to my son and to our family.
I am so very sorry for your loss. I can’t even imagine that. Thank you for taking the time (and going through the emotional wringer) to share your story with us. This was very well-written — I hope you will submit it to a national paper (or papers) and get it out in the mainstream, so others can read it as well.
Aside from the moral issue, tehre is an important pragmatic issue that the Obama people don’t get — the more we invest in saving the cancer-striken like this man’s son, the closer we get to a cure in the future — whereas if we just pull the plug, our research and knowledge remains static. And that’s just stupid.
Excellent point. Socialism does have a way of either stopping progress or going backward.
thank you.
Oh, I see what you mean, but you’ve got it backwards. The insurance company paid for continuing treatments. Obamacare’s “comparative effectiveness research” (aka “death panels”) would cut off care much sooner.
I’m truly sorry for the pain you and your son have endured.
You are spot-on.
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