Posted on 04/02/2013 1:33:14 PM PDT by Toespi
My brother-in-law is fighting stage 4 prostate cancer. He just received this letter from his oncologist:
April 2, 2013
Dear Patients and Friends of The Zangmeister Cancer Center,
You may have heard about "sequestration," the automatic spending cuts to defense, education, healthcare and other programs that are the result of the failure of Congress to compromise on how to responsibly rein in spending. Unfortunately, sequestration will have a severe adverse impact on cancer care. That's because it will cut payments to providers – your physician – for chemotherapy and other critical cancer drugs, paying for most at below cost. If these cuts are allowed to stay in place it will force further cancer clinic closings and push cancer care into higher-cost settings for patients and taxpayers. In the past 2 years in Ohio, several practices have moved to higher cost settings raising the costs of cancer care in their communities.
The Administration should not include cancer drugs as part of the sequester cut, but has ignored current law that clearly defines payment for these drugs. Here are ways you can respond and help:
You can help by signing an official White House petition to stop the sequester cut to cancer drugs. Simply do the following: Go to http://wh.gov/HDEm Click on the "Set Up Account" button, which simply requires your name, email address and zip code to verify you are a real, unique person. Wait a few minutes to get an email from the White House with a link to the petition to sign. This email may appear in your “Junk” folder. Click on the link in the email to sign. It's that simple! When we get 100,000 signatures in 30 days, the White House has to respond to the petition.
Heartless sounds too benign for a man who is utterly evil to his core. Our only mercy is that as evil as he is, he’s also extremely lazy, but it’s not much of mercy as he has plenty of minions who are as evil as he is, to whom to delegate the work. Unfortunately, though they’re as evil as Hussein, they’re a thousand times more energetic and dedicated to action.
Yeah, we’re all small-government conservatives, unless the gravy is being ladled into our bowls. Listen to you guys; do you really think government should be paying medical bills?
Cancer patients die while the Obama brats enjoy spring break in the Bahamas and Sun valley. Imagine what the media would be screaming if the Bush daughters would have done this.
I thought as conservatives we are in favor of the free market , that the government should not pick winners or losers.
Or does that just apply to things we disagree with?
Why should the government be paying for cancer drugs in the first place?
That the gov’t is involved at all is contrary to free market. Obama is just making this political. They could have cut non life threatening procedures like, abortion, but he wants the most vulnerable to pay to make a point. I don’t know how they can explain this when they’re spending so much on Obamacare.
Death from cancer is not avoided by signing a petition.
Obama care has hardly started.
These are probably Medicare cuts.
The article is pretty vague about how the sequester is going to lead to reduced reimbursements.
I don’t want to sound cold, but we cannot pay for everything. And because we have been trying to, a lot of people will die. Not because of civil unrest, but because they will get sick.
I know we can’t pay for everything and I agree with you, but from a simplistic point of view if the gov’t has money to pay for abortions and were consider paying for sex changes then why cut down on cancer treatments first? It’s like the model in UK that rec’d new boobs for free while patients in the hospital aren’t getting enough to eat.
Obama’s administration didn’t compromise either. Obama’s administration decided where ALL the “cuts” would take place.
With all the cuts, there is still MORE money to spend this year over what last year’s budget was. Like 3% more money. These “cuts” are nothing more than a tyrant bullying his subjects.
We need to flood every elected rep with this reminder, and tell the House to call him on it.
The government says they don’t pay for abortions ( yeah, I know...it’s under other items.)
The sex change thing was in MA, and even we thought that was too much.
I still cannot figure out how a private health care system is getting their funding cut through the sequester?
OK, Obama care will cut reimbursements for some physicians.
THIS place http://www.zangcenter.com/ doesn’t seem to be a government funded hospital. They are not a VA hospital. They are a for profit Cancer Treatment Hospital.
I call BS on any cuts coming to this place as a result of the sequester.
“Death from cancer is not avoided by signing a petition.”
However, a petition may stop the death of our nation.
“The Administration should not include cancer drugs as part of the sequester cut, but has ignored current law that clearly defines payment for these drugs. Here are ways you can respond and help:”
This doctor is an oncologist in Columbus, Ohio. He is affiliated with Mt. Carmel Hospital. I think if you read more carefully, the point he is making is that doctors are experiencing, unlawfully, sequestration cuts for cancer treatment. Incidentally, Obamacare pretty much insures that ALL hospitals are government funded.
many decades ago (I was alive then :O) there was no such thing as health care. There was only Blue cross/blue shield for hospital payment of bills. We were expected to pay for our own doctor visits, shots etc. I recently was cleaning out some old files and ran across my oldest son’s bill for his birth....5 days in hospital for me and 5 days in hospital for baby, cost to me was only for the TV...Total bill from hospital that was covered was under 200 dollars.... He is just a tad over 50 now...
How about a deadly midair collison over an urban area that you can blame on the republicans? If Albert Whitted can't function safely without a tower then maybe the local dems who wanted to turn it into a park will finally get their wish (ref. Meigs Field)
As you said, may be medicare or medicaid. But it still seems that they are picking the cuts to purposely cause the most uproar.
Good question but thats the system we have. To arbitrarily pull them and leave people hanging is immoral.
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