with a human face (h/t Memeorandum):
Created 60 years ago as a cornerstone of the British welfare state, the National Health Service is devoted to the principle of free medical care for everyone. But recently it has been wrestling with a problem its founders never anticipated: how to handle patients with complex illnesses who want to pay for parts of their treatment while receiving the rest free from the health service.
Although the government is reluctant to discuss the issue, hopscotching back and forth between private and public care has long been standard here for those who can afford it. But a few recent cases have exposed fundamental contradictions between policy and practice in the system, and tested its founding philosophy to its very limits.
One such case was Debbie Hirst’s. Her breast cancer had metastasized, and the health service would not provide her with Avastin, a drug that is widely used in the United States and Europe to keep such cancers at bay. So, with her oncologist’s support, she decided last year to try to pay the $120,000 cost herself, while continuing with the rest of her publicly financed treatment.By December, she had raised $20,000 and was preparing to sell her house to raise more. But then the government, which had tacitly allowed such arrangements before, put its foot down. Mrs. Hirst heard the news from her doctor.
“He looked at me and said: ‘I’m so sorry, Debbie. I’ve had my wrists slapped from the people upstairs, and I can no longer offer you that service,’ †Mrs. Hirst said in an interview.“I said, ‘Where does that leave me?’ He said, ‘If you pay for Avastin, you’ll have to pay for everything’ † in other words, for all her cancer treatment, far more than she could afford.ÂÂ
Derbyshire (h/t Instyproxy): “Wherever there is a jackboot stomping on a human face there will be a well-heeled Western liberal to explain that the face does, after all, enjoy free health care and 100 percent literacy.â€Â
Does this sentence actually make sense really? I’m not clicking cause I already clicked on their stupid McCain story and that’s all they’re getting from me.
Near the end of the article
NOW one sees the real reason behind nationalized medicine, or Social Security. The government has a vested interest in shortening the lives of those who have paid in.
That’s so dark, Darleen. Um, how many grandmothers was it the French broiled?
Happyfeet is derisive, but I have personal knowledge of the pecuniary concerns of at least the Ontario government (Canada)when it comes to health care of seniors. My brother’s father-in-law was hospitalized and wasn’t being told what was wrong with him. By happenstance, his chart was left in his room unattended, so he picked it up and read that he had esophageal cancer and that extraordinary actions were contraindicated because the rules held that he was “too old”.
He was 69.
Basically, he was being euthanized because he was no longer a taxpayer and letting him die would save the government money. This is common practice and healthcare providers will admit it privately. His son who has since emigrated to the U.S., was so incensed, he won’t go back to Canada–not even for a visit.
hf, Avastin is not used to prevent metastasis but rather to treat them should they occur later – or perhaps if they’ve already occurred by the time the cancer is diagnosed. It’s usually only an adjunct to other treatment. It works by trying to nail the creation of new small blood vessels which the metastases engender so that they might better do their dirty work. So basically the drug can’t work until the metastases have occurred.
Ok so it’s the to “keep such cancers at bay” part that’s a little sloppy I think.
Oh. Damn. I was so not derisive. I meant that for real about there being no small impact on the social welfare system when old people croak en masse. For real. It is dark. Like what you said.
Darleen I was not being derisive don’t listen to him.
Darleen and Andrew, I have a good friend who had to move his grandmother to the US because the German government determined that she didn’t deserve to have any more health care provided by a doctor. For all practical purposes, they were hoping she’d die and save them some money. Fuck alls.
Obama’s nefarious plans give me the frakkin’ shudders.
You cruel, derisive bastard.
I swear for real. When I’m derisive it’s more like … have maybe you seen anything I’ve written about Huckabee? Like that.
On cost containment as the first priority of health care: my ex wife just went through the recurrent, metastatic breast cancer thing, was treated with something identical to Avastin, and ended up dying from dermatomysitis, which is the only thing which alerted anyone to the fact that she had developed metastasies – at least 50 spots on the lung, etc. – when the dermatomyositis first showed up.
My point is that here in the U.S. the average follow-up of someone after she has been diagnosed with breast cancer, then treated without any evidence of metastasies, but in order to knock out any occult cells anywhere in the body, seems to me to be grossly inadequate.
Quite possibly this is due to cost concerns arising were you to actually follow up everyone as you would if it was you or your relative who had the disease, instead of merely waiting for something to happen. Hmmmm…I wonder how Mrs. Edwards’ bone lesion was found.
I was also amazed that given all the money going into “breast cancer awareness” and toward “finding the cure”, the follow up for an actual case of it was so lax right from the beginning.
I have a good friend who had to move his grandmother to the US because the German government determined that she didn’t deserve to have any more health care provided by a doctor. For all practical purposes, they were hoping she’d die and save them some money
Don’t knock it. By the historical standards of the German government, merely hoping that she would die is progress.
“NOW one sees the real reason behind nationalized medicine, or Social Security. The government has a vested interest in shortening the lives of those who have paid in.”
Well, yeah. Did you think the eugenics movement was totally dead?
Someone, somewhere, once said that ‘if you think health care is expensive now, wait until it’s free’. But he was probably a cynic..
There will be no surviving!
“But he was probably a cynic..” None will be permitted ala the Obama Mama.
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