Rita Marker of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, has a very informative piece at the American Thinker about the dishonesty behind Oregon’s assisted suicide law. She starts out with the kind of story that makes you wonder why the voters haven’t risen up and thrown the rascals out:
Oregon seems to have found a surefire way to lower health care costs: Tell the patient you’ll pay for drugs that will end her life, but not those that would extend her life. Here’s how it works:
In May 2008, 64-year-old retired school bus driver Barbara Wagner received bad news from her doctor. She found out that her cancer, which had been in remission for two years, had returned. Then, she got some good news. Her doctor gave her a prescription that would likely slow the cancer’s growth and extend her life. She was relieved by the news and also by the fact that she had health care coverage through the Oregon Health Plan.
It didn’t take long for her hopes to be dashed.
Barbara Wagner was notified by letter that the Oregon Health Plan wouldn’t cover her prescription. But the letter didn’t leave it at that. It also notified her that, although it wouldn’t cover her prescription, it would cover assisted suicide.
After Wagner’s story appeared in the Eugene Register-Guard, the Oregon Health Plan acknowledged that it routinely sends similar letters to patients who have little chance of surviving more than five years, informing them that the health plan will pay for assisted suicide (euphemistically categorized as “comfort care”), but not for treatment that could help them live for months or years.
There’s a lot more in Marker’s piece, especially if you live in Washington state, the next target of the assisted suicide movement. Read it all.
(Via Mere Comments.)
September 21, 2008 at 6:00 am
Oh. My. I guess that really does take assisted suicide laws to their logical conclusion, doesn’t it? More than that; in the absence of a belief in God, life seems to become less precious.
September 21, 2008 at 9:04 pm
This is where things are headed. What will the church do to say ‘life’ in this culture of death?
September 22, 2008 at 9:27 am
I work as a hospice nurse, and this is of interest to me because I am currently dealing with a patient who is pursuing PAS (physician assisted suicide). Thought number one, I am incredibly sad that in this state I have to tell my patient who says “I’d kill myself if it were legal” that in Oregon , it is legal. Anywhere else I could say yes, it is sad but I can’t help you with that. Secondly, as a Christian I am doing my best to keep the conversation going with her about God, about what comes after this life and really keeping her thinking about those kind of questions. I have to trust that the Holy Spirit can speak to her heart if she has any doubts but I guess that’s why she is my patient, (the social workers certainly won’t, they are hell bent on being politically correct) Lastly, the brochure we have available with the compatssion in care info that walks the patient through the process I am fairly certain tells them the cost of the drugs is 150-1200 dollars, and they have to pay for the meds. I could be wrong, and maybe this has changed since the brochure was printed, but that is what our doctor told this patient. She isn’t on OHP, she is on medicare, so who knows.
September 22, 2008 at 12:41 pm
[...] CULTURE OF DEATH Marches On …. [...]
September 22, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Be forewarned! Abortion, assisted suicide and eventually infanticide are the end products of liberal socialized medicine. We will head much further down this path under an Obama administration.
September 22, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Nonsense. The end product of socialized medicine is a society of people who don’t have to go bankrupt when faced with a medical emergency.
September 23, 2008 at 5:15 am
Dear Kate:
Oh how WRONG you are re “socialized medicine”. Canada has universal health care, and many Canadians CHOOSE to PAY OUT OF THEIR OWN POCKETS for surgeries in the USA. You see, with “socialized” comes “unionized”; Canadian hospitals are SO filthy that many people LEAVE hospitals in order to stop getting sicker. A scary number of Canadians DIE in hospital due to hospital-acquired infections which basic hygiene practices would remedy.
Kate, I honestly hope YOU never have a child with a life-threatening illness. That cute little perch you sit on would necessitate that you let your child DIE.
Kate, I didn’t let my child die or be killed by the consequences of socialized medicine. I chose to save my daughter’s life by having her treated in an American medical facility. It cost me well over $300K, but we have a healthy and beautiful daughter today. Every other family we know of in our predicament in Canada ended up throwing “lovely funerals”.
Kate, I hope LIFE never happens to you. Ideologues like yourself are ill-equipped for what REAL life can sometimes deliver…
Kate, dream on in your befogged little MistWorld. You’ll run into reality eventually, I’m afraid. Oh well, $hit happens, as they say, huh Kate?
September 23, 2008 at 9:13 am
Excuse me? I have buried a child, actually. I’ve had more than my share of what real life can dish out. Would you care to provide some concrete examples of said “filthy hospitals”? I have spent a large amount of time in Canadian hospitals over the years, and have yet to come across one. You chose to line jump with your daughter and go to the USA. Good for you. Nice that you could afford it. My experience with Canadian hospitals is that the triage system works pretty well – the sickest people get seen first.
September 23, 2008 at 9:18 am
I should have added, my daughter died of a cord knot, when I was 38 weeks pregnant, and I cannot say enough good things about the compassionate care I got in my lovely clean Canadian unionized hospital.
September 23, 2008 at 11:00 am
Dear Sigmund Frayed,
You need a pair of cross border binoculars. Health Care is a provincial responsibility and varies from province to province. In Canada, as a whole, the Canada Health Act applies as a funding agreement with minimum standards for inclusion.
With respect to conditions in Ontario, (which is where I reside), the house keeping services declined in direct proportion to the increase in bloated administration costs. Don’t blame the unions for increased costs. Look to the fat cat administrators.
However, no-one in Canada has to mortgage their children’s future for health care. You can keep your “laissez-faire -don’t care -health care” below the 49th parallel.