Posted on 02/06/2012 5:49:08 AM PST by Nachum
When great-grandmother Barbara Judge was told that she needed an operation on her aortic aneurysm and her case had been referred to a special funding panel, she assumed it was a formality. But 10 days ago, the 72-year-old received a letter which said her local NHS trust would not pay for the treatment. Without the life-saving operation, Barbara fears she could die any time. A rupture in the aneurysm--a blood balloon on the aorta--could kill her in minutes. Surgeons in London are confident they can save the grandmother-of-five, but the NHS believe they cannot afford to pay
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
How does it feel to have the value of your life decided by someone else?
One more thing, we need more information on the specifics of this family’s situation. Of course, THEY need to do as much as possible to help their grandmother...particularly if she is in this situation through no fault of her own.
“This is the problem. The government takes all your money and crowds out competitive private insurance. This woman has no options other than depending on the government. If this were a country with private insurance and she did not purchase it, I’d agree with you if she demanded government money for the operation. Its like we all say, in creating a government system, they destroy the private system.”
I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that here in the UK. Private healthcare is common and cheaper than it was when I lived in California. Most middle-management jobs upwards include private health cover and there and schemes to suit most pockets. The only reason not to have private helathcare here is if you are very poor or a socialist who believes in state provision.
For example:
http://www.axappphealthcare.co.uk/personal/private-medical-insurance
Hopefully she or her family can find the money to help her - I’d hate one of my relatives to die early for the price of a used Ford Focus.
"The widow was judged to be too old and ill to survive open heart surgery, but doctors said she was fit enough for a keyhole operation to fit a tailor-made stent."
What good does a stent do for an aortic aneurysm? Further, the article states,
"It admitted it had funded the procedure - a fenestrated endovascular aortic aneurysm repair - for patients in Coventry before. The operation involves making a small incision near the groin and travelling up the artery to fit a stent at the point of the aneurysm.'
This is the surgery that actually attempts to repair the aneurysm. Do all the doctors agree this is too risky? Are the doctors proposing an ineffective surgery to make some money?
The government has assumed responsibility for the lives of their people. And over the years, the public has yielded to that mentality. They don't know any other way... they make no other plans. They don't think they need to. They have inordinate waits to get care? People are resigned to this. Cancer care is delayed - resulting in more deaths? People are resigned to the de facto system in place.
Most people over there don't do more because they don't have to... because they have been conditioned to expect little and take only what they're given. It's a total complacency and mind-numbing acquiescence that has taken place over the years. The Brits have become the blobs pictured in the WALL-E movie. It's the result of socialism gone amok.
It's a picture of our future under Obama/Romneycare.
Well then I have no sympathy for anyone with that mentality. If you want to be a subject rather than a citizen, then accept your lot as domestic livestock to be culled as the government sees fit.
“...for the price of a used Ford Focus.”
Expensive for a Ford Focus, even a new one. Pretty cheap for surgery on the aorta, though.
Oh, I do not disagree... but given the entitlement mentality our own citizens are getting, do you think I’m wrong? Heck, we have people cheating/stealing elections to be placed in charge of doing this... with their future parasites actively helping in the process!
As a pensioner, she is not of use to the regime any longer. She should be thankful that they don’t simply terminate her now.
(Is the < /sarc > tag REALLY necessary?)
What a jerk. This isn't about a private citizen with free market health care. This is about a person who has been made to pay into a mandated health care system which she believed would pay for her care no matter what age she is. Health care is a right when the government forces you to participate and makes you buy their insurance, that makes it a right. This woman is a victim of socialism and most likely the reason she has no money to pay for the operation is because the government taxed it all away from her and her husband in their younger years.
“This is pure EVIL beyond words.”
True, but the Evil beyond words started well before this woman got ill.
The Evil beyond words is the socialism that she presumably didn’t have the motivation to complain about before she got sick.
That Evil beyond words is here. It is medicaid, medicare. It is the system of cost-shifting that greatly overcharges someone who wants to pay their own way. It is the insurance companies that charge individuals far higher rates than group rates. It is the hospitals that simply pass along costs incurred by one patient to another, it is the doctors that play the reimbursement game, it is the patients that expect to get everything, yet pay for nothing, and sue everyone if they don’t get an outcome that they want, regardless of reason. It is the legal system, the lawyers, the lawmakers that support each other at the expense of those who simply want to pay for their health care.
It’s evil beyond words, but everyone who can, is glad to be able to be part of the evil and let everyone else pay for their problems.
Funny how folks don’t notice evil until they don’t get something they want for free.
If you look at healthcare in the US, evil is everywhere - we just haven’t yet started denying enough folks the care they want for free. But we will.
No. We don't. Their situation is none of my business.
Family, neighbors, friends, church congregatrion -- those are people who may want to help. There are over 6 billion people on the planet. I do not "need" to know the specifics of their situation.
The point is that one either thinks that forcible redistributiuon of wealth is a good thing, because health care is a basic human right and everyone is automatically entitled to as much of it as they want ...
OR
One feels that health care is a matter of personal responsibility and that one does not usually burden strangers with personal health problems in conversation or through begging for financial assistance.
All government healthcare is an act of putting a gun to my head and declaring that her health care is my responsibility.
I'm happy to talk about the virtue of charity, and about the Christian duty to help our neighbor. But that's NOT the topic here. The topic here is "the government is screwing this old lady -- we need to make the government get more involved".
I say No.
What a scum bag. You do realize this woman has no options but to depend on the government since her money was all taxed away when she was younger? You also realize that there are very few, if any, private health care providers in the UK and that the government has made sure of that in order to eliminate competition? This woman is a victim of socialization and has every right to expect the government which has taken her money to now pony up some for her operation.
This is the situation we will all be in in this country if we do not get Obamacare repealed.
The socialist lie to people and make them believe they can use tax money to take care of everyone's needs, health wise and other wise, and then when the sh** hits the fan the money isn't there. This is a system devised by monsters and it has monstrous results.
Let me ask you this. If you paid your health insurance premiums all you life and then reached 72 and needed a life saving operation and the insurance company said, "Too bad, we won't pay for that, you are too old", would you be pissed and expect them to pay up? Of course you would. Well this woman is in that situation, she paid in, in the form of taxes, all her life and now she is being told, "Sorry, you have to die, we lied to you in the past and we won't cover your health needs".
The fact is the government can't pay for everything, even if they taxed people 100%, however they never tell the truth and shamelessly lie about it in order to grab money and power.
The ones hurt by this BS are the people like this woman. Maybe if enough people are let to die in the UK the people might wake up to the fact the NHS is nothing but a money grabbing scheme and have it disbanded, I doubt it though.
If there is cheap private insurance available, then she has to live with the consequences. I hate to sound cold, but my prior comment was based on an understanding that there was no readily available private insurance market in the UK.
Oh good grief! I said nothing about the government getting more involved. The only reason I said that more information was needed was to be able to discuss options for people who found themselves in similar situations. Unfortunately, that’s the reality in Great Britain for several people....and may well become a reality here too.
Pray for our nation!
You call me a jerk and a scumbag and expect some sort of reason response? You’re even dumber than your posts would indicate.
Next year will it be the 65 year olds?
In 10 years will it be 50 year olds or 35 year olds, that do not qualify?
When they say no to you.
Then you will understand how grandma felt when they said no to her.
There are more types of stents than just cardiac stents.
Stents designed to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms are over an inch in diameter and consist of a wire mesh covered with fabric. Like cardiac stents, these are compressed into a narrow tube, the tube is inserted through a femoral artery, and positioned using x-rays before being allowed to expand into place.
Needless to say, the process is more complicated than my simple description.
Don’t worry OB, it’s commonly misheld belief about the UK. I’m pretty cold towards those who don’t help themselves as well. An elderly gent local to me needs an operation and constantly moans about having to wait for NHS resources to become available yet he owns a $750,000 home but won’t spend his own money on making himself well when he can wait for the tax-payer to pick up the tab.
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