Just days after the recess appointment of Donald Berwick, the controversial new head of Medicare and Medicaid, the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance posted the following grim news: for the first time in history, an FDA-approved anti-cancer therapy may not be covered by Medicare.
A life-saving cancer treatment "may not be reasonable and necessary"? Gee, that kind of decision-making by an unelected federal bureaucracy certainly sounds like a death panel to me.
Say, I thought the President said that pre-existing conditions would always be covered. Isn't cancer a pre-existing condition?
Oh. What's this?
Say, I thought the President said that pre-existing conditions would always be covered. Isn't cancer a pre-existing condition?
Oh. What's this?
Let's see how it's handled after the first lady contracts same!
ReplyDeleteTime to stand up for your rights. Let the dictator know what you think.
ReplyDeleteThe dictator is an american puppet its military backed government serving the rich landowner class backed by American military Aid as part of the 'war against terror"
ReplyDeletebut the Regime did not create the floods.
And the military could be the best ,or only organisation available for helping the people.
Contrast the role of the more nationalist Chinese army and the US puppet army in pakistan in natural disasters .
And Katrina.
People need humanitarian aid ,while you want to take advantages of the human misery to play your politics.
It is interesting how americans try to use these natural disasters for the promotion of Orange revolution 'humanitarian" regime changes.
we can contrast the low Media coverage of this huge disaster in pakistan with the blanket promotion of orange revolution in Burma a couple of years ago.
When american politicos tried to make its aid conditional on sending in its military for aid distribution through monks And foeign NGO.
In Pakistan the equal of the Monks would be Muslim charitable societies.
perhaps Pakistani "Talibans" and the like?
this is not a few days disaster .
ReplyDeleteHigh level floods can fill low depressed areas with water ,but they have to be drained by human effort ,or evaporation this can take many months.
Meanwhile with crops destoyed and the land covered in water no crops can be grown.
No country ,Even America ,military dictator or not can cope alone with a disater on this scale wothout international help.
Tens of millions could easily starve and be killed by water borne diseases in the months to come.
it is no time for political point scoring and calls for 'regime change".
Aug. 25th 2010...it`s come closer...
ReplyDeleteTake a couple asprin & change your tampon 10:07
ReplyDeleteBe Kind to Humankind Week, kicks off on August 25th. Thanks for the heads-up!!!
ReplyDeleteTry checking with some private insurers see if they'll cover it. I'll bet they're not any more helpful than Medicare. Worse, actually, in my experience.
ReplyDeleteIf something is considered "experimental," then health insurance probably won't cover it. Besides, if you can't afford medical care in the first place, then this decision doesn't affect you. There are thousands of books about alternative cancer treatments that are just as good or better.
ReplyDeleteRe Pakistan: I wonder how this will affect our idiotic war on terror there? We're sending the refugees aid and they still hate us. Oh, and tell me again there's no such thing as global warming....
I doubt the First Lady is getting prostate cancer. While there are plenty of legitimate points on this blog, I find people lose their way when medical issues are involved. Treating prostate cancer costs about $1,800 per month. Provenge costs US$93,000 for a 1-month course of treatment. It does not shrink the tumor or delay progression. There is some doubt shed on the validity of measured survival advantage. The trials were on resistant, aggressive cancer that, until this drug, nothing seemed to work on. It is a bad precedent to start denying a treatment shown to be effective on a hard to treat cancer, but in this case, it might make some sense.
ReplyDeleteNo NASA, reduction in cancer research, possible elimination of Saturday mail delivery--these are unmistakable signs of a nation in decline.
ReplyDeleteDeath Panels are here now.
ReplyDeleteThanks Obama. Well, I guess this bill was written out for about 10 years by some weirdo law expert in his closet. I guess it wasn't Obama. Whoever it was, thanks to him 200 million Americans will die.
This will be eight times that of the Aztec Genocide by Cortez; 25 million Aztecs in one year due to small pox - 200 million Americans in how long due to Obamacare? Only time will tell what we'll find further down the rabbit hole.
I'm imagining one day I'll wake up and be looking at an old, big white man with a huge white beard standing by a window. He'll look at me and say, "Hello, you made the journey, congratulations!" I'll respond, "Where is everyone else?" And he'll respond, "The past no longer matters, what matters is that we look to the future."
Anyone else been having similar fantasies?