5.56X45mm
Milforum Mac Daddy
That's right. Here's what we're in for with Obama care:
Link to story
Isolated Incident (is what the healthcare advocates will say)
Another isolated incident!
If you read the Obama Healthcare bill..... crap like this is in it....
Link to story
Oregon health plan covers assisted suicide, not drugs, for cancer patient
Eugene, Ore., Jun 6, 2008 / 01:09 am (CNA).- An Oregon woman suffering from lung cancer was notified by the state-run Oregon Health Plan that their policy would not cover her life-extending cancer drug, telling her the health plan would cover doctor-assisted suicide instead.
Barbara Wagener discovered her lung cancer had recurred last month, the Register-Guard said. Her oncologist prescribed a drug called Tarceva, which could slow the cancer growth and extend her life.
The Oregon Health Plan notified Wagner that it would not cover the drug, but it would cover palliative care, which it said included assisted suicide.
“Treatment of advanced cancer that is meant to prolong life, or change the course of this disease, is not a covered benefit of the Oregon Health Plan,” said the letter Wagner received from LIPA, the Eugene company that administers the Oregon Health Plan in Lane County.
“I think it’s messed up,” Wagner said. She said she was particularly upset because the letter said doctor-assisted suicide would be covered.
“To say to someone, we’ll pay for you to die, but not pay for you to live, it’s cruel,” she said. “I get angry. Who do they think they are?”
A doctor appealed to Genentech, the company that markets Tarceva in the U.S., to cover Wagner’s medication. On Monday Wagner was told the company would cover the drug treatment for a year, after which she could re-apply for the drug.
“I am just so thrilled,” Wagner said. “I am so relieved and so happy.”
According to the Register-Guard, Oregon oncologists say they have seen a change in state health policy, saying their Oregon Health Plan patients with advanced cancer are no longer covered for chemotherapy if it is considered comfort care.
“It doesn’t adhere to the standards of care set out in the oncology community,” said Dr. John Caton, an oncologist at Willamette Valley Cancer Center. He said many studies have found that chemotherapy in a palliative setting decreases pain and time spent in the hospital and increases quality of life.
Officials of LIPA and the state Health Services Commission, which sets policy for the Oregon Health Plan, say they have not changed their coverage of recurrent cancer patients, but have only clarified the rules.
Isolated Incident (is what the healthcare advocates will say)
Another isolated incident!
Oregon Tells Patients State Will Pay for Assisted Suicide, Not Health Care
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 30, 2008
Salem, OR (LifeNews.com) –– It's happened again –– another Oregon resident has heard form state officials that it will happily pay for an assisted suicide but will not pay for the medical treatment he needs. For the second time in just over the last month, a patient has said the state health insurance plan has promoted death over medical care.
Randy Stroup is a 53-year-old Dexter, Oregon resident who faces a troubling bout of prostate cancer.
As an uninsured resident with a need for expensive chemotherapy he applied to the Oregon health insurance plan for help.
Lane Individual Practice Association administers the Oregon Health Plan in Stroup's county and they responded to his request with a letter saying the state would not cover the treatment but would pay for an assisted suicide.
"It dropped my chin to the floor," Stroup told FOX News. "[How could they] not pay for medication that would help my life, and yet offer to pay to end my life?"
The letter has been sent to other terminal patients in the state and it follows state legislative guidelines saying the state will not cover life-prolonging treatment unless there is a better than five percent chance the patient will live for five or more years.
Dr. John Sattenspiel, LIPA's senior medical director, defended the practice of promoting assisted suicide in comments to Fox News.
"I have had patients who would consider knowing that this is part of that range of comfort care or palliative care services that are still available to them, they would be comforted by that," Sattenspiel said. "It really depends on the individual patient."
But Dr. William Toffler, a professor of family medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, disagrees.
"It's chilling when you think about it," he told Fox News. It absolutely conveys to the patient that continued living isn't worthwhile. It corrupts the consistent medical ethic that has been in place for 2,000 years."
California-based attorney and author Wesley J. Smith agrees that the Oregon system is hypocritical.
"And now the oozing compassion of assisted suicide is revealed to all. And the same agenda is at the root of Futile Care Theory. When life gets tough, it is time for the ill to get going onto whatever comes next," he explained.
If you read the Obama Healthcare bill..... crap like this is in it....