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Stephen Blackwood: ObamaCare and My Mother's Cancer Medicine
WSJ ^ | February 24, 2014 | Stephen Blackwood

Posted on 02/24/2014 1:09:37 PM PST by yoe

When my mother was diagnosed with carcinoid cancer in 2005, when she was 49, it came as a lightning shock. Her mother, at 76, had yet to go gray, and her mother's mother, at 95, was still playing bingo in her nursing home. My mother had always been, despite her diminutive frame, a titanic and irrepressible force of vitality and love. She had given birth to me and my nine younger siblings, and juggled kids, home and my father's medical practice with humor and grace for three decades. She swam three times a week in the early mornings, ate healthily and never smoked.

And now, cancer?.....

[snip]As with most cancers, one thing led to another. There have been several more surgeries, metastases, bone deterioration, a terrible bout of thyroiditis (an inflammation of the thyroid gland), and much more....

[snip]And then in November, along with millions of other Americans, she lost her health insurance....

[snip]she called the insurer, Humana, HUM +10.33% to confirm that it would do so. The enrollment agent said that after she met her deductible, all treatments and medications—including those for her cancer—would be covered at 100%. Because, however, the enrollment agents did not—unbelievable though this may seem—have access to the "coverage formularies" for the plans they were selling, they said the only way to find out in detail what was in the plan was to buy the plan. (Does that remind you of anyone?)

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: obamacare
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This sort of story is becoming the norm for Obamacare. What is amazing is our politicians, other than a few, seem unable to prevent Obamacare...or terrified to do so. More amazing is that the AMA and the ANA and all medical organizations didn't stand together to say NO.....whatever, the AFC/Obamacare, will not be used by the Obama family, or the Senate, or the Congress, or the Unions and others.....right thinking Americans want this horrible mess that has been foisted on them REPEALED NOW not in 2015 but NOW. If your Congressperson voted for (Obamacare) or its repeal, go here to find out....please call them and tell them you won't be voting for them in 2014 if they are running for reelection. Enough is Enough!
1 posted on 02/24/2014 1:09:37 PM PST by yoe
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To: yoe

Sadly, the other side of the story is that if you live a healthy life and don’t smoke (gasp!) or eat potato chips as a diet (as I do), you still can get very sick. We must start to understand this and use common sense in our approach to health, life and death.


2 posted on 02/24/2014 1:15:52 PM PST by miss marmelstein (Richard Lives Yet!)
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To: yoe

But millions of people have access to affordable healthcare with no pre-exxisting conditions at lower cost!

Why does he hate people without insurance?


3 posted on 02/24/2014 1:18:46 PM PST by Mr. K (If you like your constitution, you can keep it...Period.)
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To: yoe

I read this this morning and was moved by how tragic and sad it was. But the saddest truth - though never really said in public - is that this is the intent of the healthcare law. The government has written her off as a costly liability and the sooner she dies the better. Her family and humanity view her and each day of her life as precious, but to this governing crowd she is just a selfish person who is stealing resources from someone more deserving. God help us! Not wait...God forgive us!


4 posted on 02/24/2014 1:19:29 PM PST by Bull Man
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To: yoe

Man.. what a RACIST!

He can probably expect a call soon from the DOJ, or IRS...or both!


5 posted on 02/24/2014 1:19:32 PM PST by SomeCallMeTim ( The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them!)
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To: yoe

Obamacare it intended to kill the old and the sick.

Heard and interesting story and it gives me pause to wonder if Obamacare had it’s hand in this reversal.

My wife has a friend whose father was on a heart transplant list for years, now all of a sudden, he’s not. Don’t know what factors are involved with being on the list, but found it odd that he was taken off relatively soon after Obamacare took effect.

Seems odd to me anyway.


6 posted on 02/24/2014 1:19:50 PM PST by 12th_Monkey (One man one vote is a big fail, when the "one" man is an idiot.)
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To: yoe

bookmark


7 posted on 02/24/2014 1:25:33 PM PST by Pajamajan (Pray for our nation. Thank the Lord for everything you have. Don't wait. Do it today.)
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To: yoe

What is amazing is our politicians, other than a few, seem unable to prevent Obamacare...or terrified to do so.

they have access to every phone call, email,text message and internet search of every person in the world.


8 posted on 02/24/2014 1:27:17 PM PST by nixonsnose (you never know how much pee splatters until you are standing at the urinal in flip flops.)
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To: nixonsnose

They WANT to hold the power over our very lives, FRiend : /

May God keep watch.
Tatt


9 posted on 02/24/2014 1:32:10 PM PST by thesearethetimes... ("Courage, is fear that has said its prayers." Dorothy Bernard)
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To: yoe
What I would love to see!! Just like in the Ukraine issuing a warrant and charges of murder against their corrupted president; For the sake of the rule of law defeating the rule of man in the US and in the coming process of the people re-instituting the law of our Constitution, so shall the same be done in the US to ALL who were complicit in forcing the ACA upon us. The elite overlords who control DC shall also be held to account.
10 posted on 02/24/2014 1:42:10 PM PST by drypowder
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To: yoe

Tragic as this is, why did she think Humana would cover her pre-existing condition (I know the sales agent said they would — what else is new). This isn’t an exchange policy and so isn’t Obamacare (but Obamacare caused this whole ugly scenario, yes).


11 posted on 02/24/2014 1:48:21 PM PST by steve86 (Some things aren't really true but you wouldn't be half surprised if they were.)
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To: Bull Man

The entity paying the bills and authorizing treatment benefits most when the “useless feeders” end up in the morgue. Yeah, no conflict of interest there.

The people providing health care promote and protect the interests/agenda of those who pay them. If it isn’t the patient or someone with a vested interest in the life of the patient, well...

“Obamacare” has been steeping for a long while now.


12 posted on 02/24/2014 2:06:44 PM PST by Ezekiel (All who mourn the destruction of America merit the celebration of her rebirth.)
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To: steve86

The issue isn’t coverage, exchange policy or not all new individual policies have to meet Democare standards. The issue’s the insurer’s formulary. Democare allows all insurers to limit the drugs they’ll pay for. (It’s one of the ways they can keep the policies “affordable”) The formularies usually arise from the insurance company’s judgment about which drugs are medically necessary. She has appeal rights, and if she can show the medical necessity for this drug, the insurer will pay for it.

Her case is another example of a situation where central planning leads to decisions based on the good of the whole, not the good of the individual, which is why individual freedom dies when group “rights” become predominant.


13 posted on 02/24/2014 2:19:07 PM PST by ArmstedFragg (Hoaxey Dopey Changey)
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To: nixonsnose

Could it be because Congress and Government are still covered under their existing - and very generous - plans?
Ah, the elites who govern us, the little people - like leprechauns, hobbits and dwarfs.


14 posted on 02/24/2014 2:47:34 PM PST by ArmyTeach ( Videteco eos prius (See 'em first) Sculpin 191)
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To: ArmstedFragg

Our insurance company and Medicare have decided to no longer cover my asthma medication. My Dr. is furious but his hands are tied. They offered a few alternatives, one of which he says isn’t bad but this particular drug has made me symptom free for over 10 years. Fortunately, we’re in a position to pay for this out of pocket and it’s quite expensive. Every time I pick up my prescription they ask “don’t you have insurance?”” Yeah, I do but they won’t pay a penny of it. “ They’re shocked when i start handing them $100 dollar bills.


15 posted on 02/24/2014 2:48:05 PM PST by surrey
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To: ArmstedFragg
She has appeal rights, and if she can show the medical necessity for this drug, the insurer will pay for it.

Pretty unlikely for an off-label use.

16 posted on 02/24/2014 3:01:34 PM PST by steve86 (Some things aren't really true but you wouldn't be half surprised if they were.)
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To: yoe

Wath out. Just went through a heartbreaker with friend hospitalized at major medical center. We watched as he suffered treatment and non-treatments repeated over and over these days by seniors on Medicare.

For instance, he was not given any nourishment because “he can feed himself”. But he was too weak to lift food to mouth. But if he can swallow he does not get assistance.

It took threat of legal action directly to administration to get IV nourishment. However, soon it became apparent that they were giving him only a fifth of the calories he needed. Not enough to help fight his infection.

If a sick person will get better he must have nourishment adequate to do so. Otherwise, he dies as much from dehydration and starvation as his disease. PRAY FOR AMERICA.


17 posted on 02/24/2014 3:06:05 PM PST by amihow
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To: yoe

I wonder if he voted for Obama.

“Mr. Blackwood is the president of Ralston College, a planned liberal-arts institution in Savannah, Ga., and is on the board of the Caring for Carcinoid Foundation. His mother, Catherine, manages the Family Medicine Center in Virginia Beach, Va.”

“Like every American, I want affordable health care, and I’m open to innovative solutions of all kinds—individual, corporate, for-profit, nonprofit and public. It will take all of these, and all the intelligence, creativity and self-discipline we have, as well as everything we can offer one another as families, neighbors, friends and citizens—and it still won’t be perfect. But it is precisely because health care for 300 million people is so complicated that it cannot be centrally managed.”


18 posted on 02/24/2014 3:15:30 PM PST by Felis cactus II
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To: ArmstedFragg
"Then on Feb. 12, just before going into (yet another) surgery, she was informed by Humana that it [her new plan] would not, in fact, cover her Sandostatin, or other cancer-related medications."

The underlined portion suggests this is not just a formulary issue.

19 posted on 02/24/2014 3:19:30 PM PST by steve86 (Some things aren't really true but you wouldn't be half surprised if they were.)
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To: yoe
You have to buy it so you know what's covered.

You have to read it, so you know what's in it.
You have to read it, so you know what's in it.
You have to read it, so you know what's in it.
You have to read it, so you know what's in it.
You have to read it, so you know what's in it.

20 posted on 02/24/2014 3:21:01 PM PST by fivecatsandadog (If you want to know who rules over you, find out who you are not allowed to criticize.)
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