red states rule
08-24-2009, 08:02 AM
Under ObamaCare Sen Kennedy would be given a pain pill and told to go home with his book on how to get your estate in order
Have to give these type of patients "End of life counseling"
Oh, sorry - Congress already voted to keep their coverage and not take Obamacare
Kennedy illness symbol in debate
With his own health flickering and the cause of his life within reach, Sen. Ted Kennedy is a rallying force for advocates of national health care reform.
Absent from Washington but eager to influence the debate, the cancer-stricken Kennedy recently wrote in Newsweek, “Every American should be able to get the same treatment that U.S. senators are entitled to.”
Kennedy’s quote, however, highlights another — and more problematic — way that the Massachusetts Democrat is an emotion-laden symbol of this summer’s roiling reform debate.
The uncomfortable truth, according to health care experts, is that most concepts about lowering health care costs involve patients and caregivers becoming more disciplined about resisting the kinds of aggressive medical treatments Kennedy has pursued to battle his brain tumor.
By these lights, the problem is not that too few Americans have access to the kind of care that Kennedy is receiving. The problem is that too many Americans avail themselves of expensive treatments that may extend lives at the margins but have low prospects of actually saving them.
Of course, it’s difficult to say exactly how much is being spent on Kennedy’s care. His Senate office declines to discuss his treatment. And, unlike most Americans, Kennedy has access to a vast family fortune that enables him to pay for treatments any insurance policy might not cover.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26362.html
Have to give these type of patients "End of life counseling"
Oh, sorry - Congress already voted to keep their coverage and not take Obamacare
Kennedy illness symbol in debate
With his own health flickering and the cause of his life within reach, Sen. Ted Kennedy is a rallying force for advocates of national health care reform.
Absent from Washington but eager to influence the debate, the cancer-stricken Kennedy recently wrote in Newsweek, “Every American should be able to get the same treatment that U.S. senators are entitled to.”
Kennedy’s quote, however, highlights another — and more problematic — way that the Massachusetts Democrat is an emotion-laden symbol of this summer’s roiling reform debate.
The uncomfortable truth, according to health care experts, is that most concepts about lowering health care costs involve patients and caregivers becoming more disciplined about resisting the kinds of aggressive medical treatments Kennedy has pursued to battle his brain tumor.
By these lights, the problem is not that too few Americans have access to the kind of care that Kennedy is receiving. The problem is that too many Americans avail themselves of expensive treatments that may extend lives at the margins but have low prospects of actually saving them.
Of course, it’s difficult to say exactly how much is being spent on Kennedy’s care. His Senate office declines to discuss his treatment. And, unlike most Americans, Kennedy has access to a vast family fortune that enables him to pay for treatments any insurance policy might not cover.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26362.html