Hey, I Found Those Republican Death Panels
PHOENIX — Even physicians with decades of experience telling patients that their lives are nearing an end are having difficulty discussing a potentially fatal condition that has arisen in Arizona: Death by budget cut.
Effective at the beginning of October, Arizona stopped financing certain transplant operations under the state’s version of Medicaid. Many doctors say the decision amounts to a death sentence for some low-income patients, who have little chance of survival without transplants and lack the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to pay for them.
“The most difficult discussions are those that involve patients who had been on the donor list for a year or more and now we have to tell them they’re not on the list anymore,” said Dr. Rainer Gruessner, a transplant specialist at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. “The frustration is tremendous. It’s more than frustration.”
Why am I not surprised that this is happening in Arizona.
Guess Republicans weren’t lying when they warned about Death Panels. Their motto: If you’re poor, you die. Perhaps they could kindly STFU about the sanctity of life.
Tags: Arizona, Health Care
Media sensationalism at it’s best. Hey, I remember the days when you weren’t admitted to an ICU bed if you were over 65.
That’s a little heartless, Joanne. Real people are being given a death sentence because they’re poor. One person in the article had a terminally ill friend offer him her organ, but because he couldn’t pay the organ went to someone else.
Perhaps Pro-Life should be Pro- certain people’s – Life.
Also, can you tell me why this is media sensationalism? Are you claiming this isn’t happening? Or are you saying it is happening and it’s no biggie? I’m confused.
Joanne, some people also remember days when you could murder a black person, not do jail time and be considered a hero in your small southern town.
just ’cause it happened doesnt mean it isnt barbaric.
She should change her last name. A more fitting one would be Bligh.
Given that state budgets are not infinite, what would you do?
For example, what if the choice is between paying for an organ transplant for a single individual or providing 200,000 nourishing meals for hungry children?
Flip a Coin? Heads someone gets an organ, tails the kids get a feed.[ just as long as we’re SURE there ain’t none of them durn illeagel ones in there chowin’ down on that tasty gruel]
The death panels are wide spread throughout Iraq and Afghanistan. Lets see the republicans close that shit down.
An organ transplant isn’t something you take up an offer from a dying friend–it’s hardly an “off the shelf” match. You think Medicaid makes people go thru hoops for a transplant–IF–there is a match, or a willing compatible donor? Trust me–private insurance is no better. The scrutiny is rigorous (especially in liver, heart/lung), because the after care is so intense. Even cognitive, intellectual, and emotional capability is taken into consideration on these decisions. You are committing often half a million in care, drugs, resources etc.. , the FIRST YEAR if they survive. I rememeber in Pittsburgh–if a liver was being done, the entire blood transfusion pool (of a type) in the city was placed on hold while the procedure went on. Tell that to a mother, whose child is hemmhoraging from a routine tonsillectomy, or a lady who has undergone an emergency C-section. Healthcare is a resource people–and the type of insurance you have is darn well going to say where resources are servicing the most, and allocating to the greatest. Life stinks.
The people who loudly protested that we must keep Terri Schiavo “alive” are strangely silent about this.
I get the case by case thing – altho, AZ isn’t doing this case by case. I also understand the difficult budget situations. What I don’t understand is a political party that screams constantly about the sanctity of life shrugging this off. Surely, there should be outrage.
And if this is really about money, then the pro-lifers need to drop their anti-abortion drama, since:
1. We all know those with money will continue to have abortions… um, I mean D&Cs.. while poor women will be forced to have their babies, and
2. 99% of pro-lifers vanish the instant the fetus becomes a baby, and then complain loudly about welfare.
There’s a big disconnect here, and UI hits the nail on the head with the ridiculous Terri Schiavo case. It seems to come down to… pro-lifers get to decide who lives and who dies. They decide who is worthy.
But it is the way the GOP function. Drug addicts are bad, unless they’re Rush Limbaugh. Adulterers are bad, unless they’re Republicans – then it’s a youthful indiscretion. Teen sex/pregnancy is bad, unless it’s Bristol Palin – then it’s something to be admired. Obama being a smoker is bad, but it’s okay for Boehner to smoke. Wikileaks is treason, outing Valerie Plame… not so much. Life is sacred, unless you’re on medicaid.
Not one bit of sound logic to be displayed in all your comments people (excluding Joan). Figured I check out a Liberal blog, just to further prove the reality of your disease. Drug addicts are bad, but we try to help them kick there addiction… we don’t feed them drugs on the taxpayers money. Adultery is bad, in all cases. It’s even more despicable when your wife is dying of Cancer. Teen pregnancy is something this country should try and prevent, handing out condoms to junior high kids and showing them how to use them is not a solution. You Lib’s had your fun with Bristol Palin, the same crybabies that get upset when we slander terrorists have had nothing but an endless rant of hate-speak to the whole Palin family, it just shows how un-creative and hypocritical the progressives really are. I smoke… so what. Wikileaks is bad for both parties and I think we all know this, You still are Americans right? Valerie Plame? Really, Great comparison. Life is sacred but when you replace God with government life tends to be weighed on a different scale. Keep it up, and thanks for proving to America how screwed up your philosophy really is.
Any guesses what JPC is smoking?
“Life stinks.”
I think you mean “needing an organ transplant for continued life stinks.”