He doesn’t need the independents. He doesn’t need the coal states and he doesn’t need the hard left.
Now he doesn’t need women.
I guess that leaves Obama and the Dems with the under 30’s, blacks and illegal immigrants; sounds like majority to me.
Cheers,
lance
Postscript: Eliminating a “last hope” drug that combats breast cancer for cost reasons would make the FDA a death panel, no?
And all the best, Bruce.
Bill H
I can’t wait till you tell me what you would use for Euthanasia or Suicide by stranger.
The debate is about the very panels where talking about. Palin was right. You speak in stark terms. Ones that don’t fuzz meanings. As for calling Conservatives fascists. Thats all the left think we are. That, & racists.
Fact is Bill the left uses language to muddy the debate to enhance there position through changing the meanings of key concepts, words stand for. The more they twist definitions the more straw men they build. The more they take the sting out of evil.
JMO
cgh
Point taken.
There are numerous solutions that could accommodate most interests. Unfortunately (in Canada) health care is so politicized that most options that would increase choice and relieve stress on the system are dismissed purely on ideological grounds. This is why the discussion is always reduced to extremes (on both sides), just as the American and Canadian system are the two extremes on both sides of the argument.
All of that said, judging from my life experience, and those of friends and families, given the opportunity I would choose to “opt out” and fend for myself(and my family).
Dr Strangelove
Yep. Fluffy, FooFoo and Fido have got it made in Canada. I’m sure all those lefties and statists vociforously defending our decrepit government health care system would advocate state health care for Rover and friends too if not for the fact that pet ownership is a form of slavery. don’t ya know. PETA likes to say “Animals are people too”. Good thing they’re not or they’d be languishing on the waiting lists with the rest of us.
Amy, life expectancy is lower in the US than any other OECD nation. That’s a poorer outcome.
Socialized medicine is still a great system for people who never get sick. I’d rather have 66% survival rates for cancer and the freedom to pay for my own treatments, thankyouverymuch.
Duff
pithy comments:)
RD
well said
Bruce, I’m truly sorry for your troubles. I wish you and your wife Godspeed.
cgh,
You obviously didn’t read the story, either. Avastin is the most common cancer drug in the world. It is used for lung, kidney, colon, brain, and other cancers. According to the Susan G Komen Foundation, the reason Avastin has relatively low averages is that it is EXCEPTIONALLY effective in 30-50% of cases and ineffective in the rest. For the cases where it’s effective it limits cancer growth for months or even years. Wouldn’t it be nice for that 30-50% to have the option of living for years?
Scuttling this program, btw, is also killing the fastrack process of using Avastin for ovarian cancer.
Which term do you prefer, cgh, “useless eaters” or “ballast existences”?
“Tim, surely you realize how fatuous this comment is. The demand for health care is infinite; ” – KevinB
Kind of like the demand for food? If the demand is high, the market will meet it, people will have jobs meeting the demand, and people will pay their money willingly for a service they desire.
You can’t get outside of the idea of the govt paying for it, and therefore having an interest in limiting it. What makes the provision of health care different than food production?
“If the demand is high, the market will meet it…”
Only in a free market system. In canuckistan, where the government is the only game in town, the false concept that healthcare is “free” raises demand to stratospheric levels, and with limited government funding/resources, shortages (rationing) must occur.
Contrast this to a true free market system, where there are profits to be made by providing healthcare services. With more competition, prices will reach a market norm, balancing supply/demand. If prices are unnaturally high, you will get surplus of services, and if they are too low (as in govt mandated fees) then again, you will get shortages.
It’s no different than any other item or service; if McDonalds suddenly offered free hamburgers, it’d be only a matter of time before they ran out. Simple supply/demand principles; people just don’t want to accept the facts because it involves healthcare, and – of course – in canada, it’s your “right” to free healthcare.
So we end up with the 2nd rate system we have.
mhb23re at gmail d0t calm
JMO says:
“I can’t wait till you tell me what you would use for Euthanasia or Suicide by stranger.”
I would call that murder.
And I call selling $80,000 worth of drug that does not work to a dying breast cancer patient who is deperately clinging to life fraud.
What do you call call it?
Of course someone else is paying the $80k tab so what does the breast cancer patient care. However, the result is that some cannot afford health insurance and therefore miss out on getting the care they need. And some die.
Bill, I don’t call it fraud. If the drug has some efficacy so that it prolongs life or even prevents death in some cases but not many – and you never know to whom it will be effective – it is clearly not fraud.
In a less or preferably non- socialist/collectivist world, it would be an honest and voluntary exchange between a buyer and seller with all relevant information available. However, we are prevented by a third party from entering into such a contract.
I understand that duress plays a role here even in my libertarian example. A patient who pays for the drugs out of pocket and of desparation and dies anyway will leave an injured financial legacy. Nevertheless, I cannot think of any way that it is better to have this decision forcably outsourced to a third party. That, to me, is the real criminal behaviour.
Well Dr. Strangelove here are the facts. Avastin doesn’t prevent deaths – period. In most cases is does nothing and in others it may delay death by as much as 6 months.
So if a patient wanted to roll the dice and take the drug I am fine with that so long as they pay for the drug out of their own pocket.
However, I am not in favor of a desperate patient who is clinging to life leaving the reast of us paying the bil.
The FDA, by not approving the drug, will leave it to the patient and the MD to decide between them if they want to use Avastin. Insurance companies will refuse to pay, in which case the patient can choose to pay for it herself.
If that is what a death panel is wwell then sign me up for death panels.
“If that is what a death panel is wwell then sign me up for death panels.”
This is exactly why the govt shouldn’t be involved in regulating this kind of issue. Because you make a value judgement and confidently condemn the 1/3 of those patients who would experience significant life extension, that much more time with their children or grandchildren; what is life anyway but time?
Ideally, you would be able to choose between health care plans that fought for your life, like Teddy Kennedy, who fought to the end with one expensive long shot procedure after another, or a cheaper plan that includes payment for a pillow over your face when a “death panel” decides that a one out of three chance for six more months with your children is simply not worth it.
And you wonder why people hate liberals. Do you know anybody who likes a control freak? I was married to one for a long time, and I am convinced that she was certain that her every demand on those around her was motivated by a sincere desire to improve everybody’s lives.
You should think about that, but being a liberal, you won’t. If you reply at all, it will be to reject without argument or evidence, then indulge some rhetorical flourish.