Sole Morality

The dangers of state run health care

While many people tout the advantages of nationalized health care, government run health care isn't always all people make it out to be. For Barbara Wagner, it was quite a bit less.

Barbara is on the Oregon Health Plan (OHP), a state run health care plan. Suffering from lung cancer, Barbara sought treatment from a physician who prescribed a medication that would slow the growth of her cancer and consequently extend her life.

So, like any one of us would do, she wanted to fill her prescription and start taking the medications. And that is what she would have done, except her insurance said no.

OHP came back and said that they weren't willing to pay for her medications.

"We can't cover everything for everyone," Dr. Walter Shaffer, medical director of the state Division of Medical Assistance Programs said. "We try to come up with polices that provide the most good for the most people."

Lest you think OHP is heartless and doesn't care about members of their health plan, they didn't leave Barbara without any options. They did leave her one that they would pay for: doctor-assisted suicide.

Oregon is the only state that allows physician-assisted suicide. Apparently it is the preferred alternative if the state doesn't feel that your treatment for a terminal illness will be of "enough benefit."

[Dr.] Shaffer then addressed a priority list that had been developed to ration health care. "There's some desire on the part of the framers of this list to not cover treatments that are futile," he said, "or where the potential benefit to the patient is minimal in relation to the expense of providing the care."

Minimal. The problem is that minimal is a rather subjective term when you are talking about life.

Thankfully, the company that makes the drug that Barbara was prescribed has stepped up and is providing it to her at no cost.

I personally think that OHP was flat out of line for indicating that they would pay for the suicide option but not her meds. Right or wrong on their refusal to pay for meds, offering the alternative was just plain wrong. Let her doctor bring up the assisted suicide option.

“To say to someone, we’ll pay for you to die, but not pay for you to live, it’s cruel,” [Barbara] said.

I couldn't agree more.

If you can't trust G.I. Joe, who can you trust?

Geez, I wish I was making this up. This is something you expect to find on The Onion or some other satirical news feed. BBC reports that TSA officials at Los Angeles International Airport stopped 55 year old Judy Powll from boarding because the G.I. Joe doll she had purchased as a gift and had packed in her carry on bags had a gun! And not just any gun, this was a scary, black, machine gun! What's that you say? It's plastic and only two inches long? What's your point?

Mrs Powell said: "I was simply stunned when I realised they were serious. Security examined the toy as if it was going to shoot them and looked at the rifle. I was really angry to start with because of the absurdity of the situation. But then I saw the funny side of it and thought this was simple lunacy."

I have to admit, I'm not sure I would have seen the "funny side" of that sheer stupidity and total absence of any common sense whatsoever. In the end, TSA ended up confiscating the "gun" and allowing her to pack the doll in her checked baggage.

Tax funded stupidity in action, right there.

A spokesman for Los Angeles International Airport said: "We have instructions to confiscate anything that looks like a weapon or a replica.

Boy I feel bad for the guy I saw the other day with a tatoo of an AK-47 on his forearm. I sure hope for his sake that TSA has its employees studying up on amputations and/or skin grafts in preparation for his next foray on commercial flight.

This reminds me of a story my uncle in Hawaii told. Being a federal government employee conducting raids on the various Hawaiian Islands, he often flies with a bag full of his tactical gear: ballistsics vests, select-fire MP5's, and lots of ammunition. Tack on his standard issue sidearm and that makes going through airport security a lot more of an adventure than most of us encounter.

In going through security for an inter-island flight very shortly after 9/11 (I think I remember those details correctly), he showed his badge and signed the form as usual, but the security agent stopped him and insisted on checking his carry on bag. She unzipped the bag and began pushing aside his MP5, ballistic vest, magazine of ammunition and rummaging around. My uncle leaned over and calmly inquired, "So, what are you looking for." The woman looked up and said, "I don't know, but they told us to check every bag."

If I ever found myself in that situation, I'd sure try to see the humor in it and might even laugh, but I think I'd stop short of saying "you guys just kill me" for fear that they wouldn't take my statement in the idiomatic spirit in which it was intended.

(Hat tip: Right Wing News)