I wish Dr. Mark had learned to speak English.
Most people would look at this and say gummit bumbling.
The more the gummit controls the more bumbling.
As the government takes a bigger and bigger role in health care, this will happen more and more.
When government pays the bills, government makes the rules.
All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.
Oh, those heartless, profit-driven Big Insurance companies ...
Oh, wait a minute ...
Let’s be clear about this: she didn’t lose her insurance, MEDICARE refuses to pay for her treatment.
Read the Health Bill. You can keep your insurance IF and it’s a big IF.....you don’t make any changes to your policy. Once you make changes, you will loose the insurance. Just changing your address will make a difference. Soon, you will have to ask permission to change your residence. This is exactly what happened in the USSR. The government had to approve where you lived. Our government will start this with health care and then take it to the general public. It will take years but it will happen if the people let it.
Welcome to heartless Gummit HC.
Pray for America
Nonsense.
It is impossible not to have some emotional attachment to patients just as long as it doesn't cloud judgment or keep you awake at night.
I don't know where these people come up with these ideas.
Medicare is usually the senior citizen health care.
She is only 40?
Something doesn’t smell right here.
The media, prompted by their rat bastard masters, are going to start playing up this “in state” stuff to counteract the states’ efforts to legislate against DictatorCare.
On the other, are the insurance companies that must use good sense and not rubber-stamp every request for an expensive, unproven drug.
Too bad the doctor didn't call the drug company to help her get her medication for reduced or no cost
Too bad the doctor didn't offer to treat her at his own cost, donate his own time, and his own services for free...
You know, I'm getting all choked up here.
Assuming that the reported drug costs are accurate (this site - http://ms.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=ms&cdn=health&tm=12&gps=501_387_1117_628&f=10&su=p284.9.336.ip_p736.8.336.ip_&tt=2&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.destinationrx.com/ - suggests there may be an overstatement of the costs in the story), this is the tough part of paying for health care. This drug is not approved. This drug apparently costs $8000 per month. This poor woman has no means of paying for the drug. The alternative “approved” treatments are likely as or more expensive than the effective treatment.
This story goes to the heart of health cost issues. I think the new health care bill is a catastrophe - but I cannot envisage a bill that would actually resolve this issue. Simplistically one could argue that we, via Medicare, should continue to pay for this treatment for this patient but that hardly addresses the systemic issues this case raises.
Sooner or later someone will have to decide whether to invest $100K in this patient or $100K in these 20 patients. Sooner or later someone has to decide whether to pay for an experimental and unproven treatment. These are the real dilemmas and it is no good blaming decision makers for these dilemmas.
We have created a system where people’s expectations are not in line with what they or others can afford.
Medicare paid 22,500 a month for drugs that limited\didn’t work but wont pay 8,000 a month for drugs that do work.
there has to be a better way to handle all this.
sad part is, under OBama care, she probably would have faced an end of life doctor by now.