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.