"A Possibly Fatal Mistake" that we all should pay for

Vanity ^ | October 14, 2012

[Acton]

An editorial writer at The New York Times (Nicholas Kristof) makes an impassioned plea to vote for Obama because a friend from his youth and days at Harvard (Scott Androes) is dying of cancer:

"Yet for all his innate prudence, Scott now, at age 52, is suffering from Stage 4 prostate cancer, in part because he didn’t have health insurance. President Obama’s health care reform came just a bit too late to help Scott, but it will protect others like him — unless Mitt Romney repeals it.

If you favor gutting “Obamacare,” please listen to Scott’s story. He is willing to recount his embarrassing tale in part so that readers can learn from it.

I’ll let Scott take over the narrative ...."

Kristof includes several paragraphs written by his friend, Scott Androes, which indicate that Androes feels like he "blew it" and feels like a "damned fool." Androes says, "I would have bought insurance if there had been any kind of fair-risk pooling." Androes also says, "I didn’t go see the doctor because that would have been several hundred dollars out of pocket — just enough disincentive to get me to make a bad decision."

[BilLies]

“The economic logic of this article is baffling, yet it is worth studying because it represents the logic of The New York Times — and graduates of Harvard. And that alone should scare the daylights out of citizens who can think and take care of themselves without a government subsidy.”

What I find incredible is the NYTimes would publish this, I suppose, as an argument for national health insurance. It is like a John arguing that unprotected sex with prostitute would not have consequences if all women would just “putout.” for free .....and/or the government would pay for it. Sandra Fluke to the ultimate.

[Vermont Lt]

You must be racist.....

Even though this guy might be white.

(Obviously kidding. My first reaction was, “So...” I know that would be bad karma.)

[bmwcyle]

So kill the old people and give money to young people to save him.

[Marylander]

I don't get it. If he had Obamacare would he have applied for Medicaid? How else would he get a price he considers fair? Perhaps he would have got the diagnosis and then got insurance, but the diagnosis would have cost the same amount of money he already was unwilling to pay, and he would have paid the penalties in addition. Perhaps he would have just bought the insurance to avoid the fine, but he could have done that without the threat of a fine, and it would have been cheaper. What kind of logic are they teaching at Harvard?.

I suspect this guy, if he exists, avoided medical care to make a political point, but an illogical point, and now it has come round to a very sad situation . His friend is trying to console him by printing in the NYT that he was only marginally responsible , mostly it was unfair insurance rates that are killing him.

[SledgeCS]

/i He quit his job with benefits to have time to read books and play poker? /i
/p I am sorry but that is a really p!sspoor excuses as to why he has no heath insurance especially with family members having a history of cancer.

[rlmorel]

Yes. From Ezekiel Emmanuel:

The complete lives system discriminates against older people. Age-based allocation is ageism. Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocation by age is not invidious discrimination; every person lives through different life stages rather than being a single age. Even if 25-year-olds receive priority over 65-year-olds, everyone who is 65 years now was previously 25 years. Treating 65-year-olds differently because of stereotypes or falsehoods would be ageist; treating them differently because they have already had more life-years is not.

When implemented, the complete lives system produces a priority curve on which individuals aged between roughly 15 and 40 years get the most substantial chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get chances that are attenuated (figure).78 It therefore superficially resembles the proposal made by DALY advocates; however, the complete lives system justifies preference to younger people because of priority to the worst-off rather than instrumental value. Additionally, the complete lives system assumes that, although life-years are equally valuable to all, justice requires the fair distribution of them. Conversely, DALY allocation treats life-years given to elderly or disabled people as objectively less valuable ...

Ultimately, the complete lives system does not create “classes of Untermenschen whose lives and well being are deemed not worth spending money on” but rather empowers us to decide fairly whom to save when genuine scarcity makes saving everyone impossible.

[juniorbear]

The “fair” comes once a year!!!!. “Fair” is a subjective opinion that cannot be used as a foundational element for determining a course of action. The proper foundation upon which to base laws and personal action is justice. “Fair” cannot be determined for the majority because it is subjective and personal. Typical “progressive” shifting of responsibility.

[Chode]

smart enough to goto harvard but NOT smart enough to buy health insurance???

then he's tooo stooopid to live...

[Heart of Georgia]

“a humane government tries to compensate for our misjudgments.”

No, that’s what mommies do while they’re raising you (and some do afterwards).

[Smokin' Joe]

I'm admittedly cheap. I did the calculations on what My family's actual medical costs were versus BCBS over 10 years and figured out that we would have saved $88,000.00

Of course past performance is no guarantee of future returns, but the difference was striking enough to seek a high deductible catastrophic health care plan when I opened my own business.

Small stuff comes out of pocket. When it is time to go to the doctor, it is time, and waiting will cost you more.

I had cancer surgery not too long ago, which was the first event which produced bills high enough to trip the co-pay bit, and paid the rest out of pocket, about $5,000.00

You pays your money and takes your choice.

When the symptoms would not go away, I got checked out--such vigilance is the first line of defense for any prospective patient.

So why did this guy wait? A PSA is relatively cheap, and that might have been enough to indicate it was time to get serious about his condition--before it hit stage 4.

I do not envy him the results of his choices, but I do question waiting so long.

[depressed in 06]

I am incensed at how the Bolshies play this anecdotal “Queen for a Day” sob story, then, want to give everyone a new washing machine. Sandra “Slut” Fluke says she cannot afford sex, but, wants me to pay for her and every other woman’s search for Ron Jeremy.

[Oratam]

Legislating by anecdote. If you oppose this, you are a heartless bastard.

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

[aimhigh]

The article fails to mention the hundreds of people dying of cancer because of chemo drug shortages, caused by Obama’s FDA. A Rush’s Limbaugh letter recently outlined this serious problem.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

Iodine in the diet is key to preventing prostate cancer, breast cancer and others. Here are two quotes from Dr. James Howenstine, MD.

1. “Iodine lack is known to be a factor in the development of breast and prostate cancer. Sixty patients with a variety of cancers were studied. All sixty patients were found to have serious iodine deficiency.”

2. “Iodine deficiency is a recognized risk factor in the development of cancer of the breast, prostate, and probably the ovary and endometrium.”

Other medical doctors know this. It does not take billions of dollars spent on ObamaCare to see that We The People get enough iodine in the diet to help prevent cancer, especially breast and prostate cancers.

Our diet has not always been so deficient in iodine. Forty years ago the food industry decided to remove iodine from baked goods and replace the iodine with bromine. Iodine and bromine appear similar to the thyroid gland and bromine easily binds to the thyroid gland’s receptors for iodine.

Bromine, however, is of no value to the thyroid gland unlike iodine and it inhibits the activity of iodine in the thyroid gland. Bromine also can cause impaired thinking and memory, drowsiness, dizziness and irritability.

This substitution of bromine for iodine has resulted in nearly universal deficiency of iodine in the American populace.

Iodine therapy helps the body eliminate fluoride, bromine, lead, cadmium, arsenic, aluminum and mercury.

Could this substitution of bromine for iodine have been carried out to increase diseases and thus create more need for pharmaceutical drugs?

[APatientMan]

“...several hundred dollars out of pocket — just enough disincentive to get me to make a bad decision.”

Unfortunately, people like this tend to breed and pass on their victim mentality before they die of their own stupidity.

[Brad from Tennessee]

Thanks.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

An editorial writer at The New York Times (Nicholas Kristof) makes an impassioned plea to vote for Obama because a friend from his youth and days at Harvard (Scott Androes) is dying of cancer...

A Harvard grad who wasn't smart enough to get health insurance?

Whose fault is that?

[bmwcyle]

deemed not worth spending money on”

Who among us can make those choices and not be guided by greed, money, playing favorites, or choosing family and friends over government guidelines?

[fireman15]

No one is denied medical treatment in this country. People often lose their stuff when they get sick or seriously injured, but this is regardless of whether they have insurance or not. The problem with this story and every other the dems come up with to justify Obamacare is that the narrative always ends up being misleading. A lot of the time, Cancer just kills people no matter what type of treatment you get. A sad fact is that a lot of the time it is the treatment not the cancer that kills people.