HOW 'LIBERAL' CARE WOULD KILL TED - New York Post - The Diigo Meta page

• 30 Jul 09
  

  robert daly

  7-20-09 H.C. [Folder Name]

• 06 Jun 08
  

  Nathan M

  medicine health policy politics America UK Canada TedKennedy hypocrisy

• 05 Jun 08
  

  liveinfreedom .

  Now can anyone on Skype challenge this data that states government healt care is TERRIble

  health government brain tumor service

  • IRONICALLY enough, the dangers of the lib eral health-care agenda are being made clear by the care that a liberal icon, Sen. Ted Kennedy, has received since his brain seizure last month.
  • Kennedy was quickly diagnosed with a malignant glioma - a rare and often-fatal form of brain cancer. Less than two weeks later, his tumor was being removed by one of the world's experts in brain cancer at Duke Univeristy Medical Center.
  • Of course, with his wealth and power, Kennedy would get good treatment anywhere. But the same care is available to every American.
  • governments that promise to "cover everyone" always wind up cutting corners simply to save money.

  • Consider Jennifer Bell of Norwich, England. In 2006, the 22-year-old complained of headaches for months - but Britain's National Health Service made her wait a year to see a neurologist.

    Then she had to wait more than three months before should could get what the NHS decided was only a "relatively urgent" MRI scan. Three days before the MRI appointment, she died.

  • Consider Jennifer Bell of Norwich, England. In 2006, the 22-year-old complained of headaches for months - but Britain's National Health Service made her wait a year to see a neurologist.

    Then she had to wait more than three months before should could get what the NHS decided was only a "relatively urgent" MRI scan. Three days before the MRI appointment, she died.

    Consider, too, the chemo drug Kennedy is receiving: Temodar, the first oral medicine for brain tumors in 25 years.
  • Temodar has been widely used in this country since the FDA approved it in 2000. But a British health-care rationing agency, the National Institute for Comparative Effectiveness, ruled that, while the drug helps people live longer, it wasn't worth the money - and denied coverage for it.
  • Even today, only a handful of Brits with brain tumors can get Temodar.
  • Things are no different in Canada, where the wait for an MRI (once you finally get a referral) has grown to 10 weeks. For Canadians relying on their government health care, the average wait time from diagnosis of cancer to surgery is beyond the guideline set by both the US and European societies for surgical oncology.
  • And HealthCanada, the government system, similar refuses to pay for treatments that are often covered in America.
  • Chad Curley, a 37-year-old auto worker from Windsor, Ontario, had a brain tumor like Kennedy's but can't have surgery because his is too large to be operable.
  • His tumor didn't respond to Temodar and the same doctors now treating Sen. Kennedy told him and his wife that the Avastin combination could stop his tumor from growing and add months to his life. But HealthCanada wouldn't pay to use Avastin to treat his tumor.

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