By Roy Hanson Jr.
January 2009
Government-run health care, such as is repeatedly being proposed here in California and at the federal level, could ultimately be dangerous to your health. Many of these proposals to replace our current free-market system of health care would open the door to the kinds of horrific situations that are already occurring in places like Oregon, which already has a statewide government health care system.
Recently, 64-year-old Barbara Wagner of Oregon was refused the drugs prescribed by her doctor because the government-run health care system didn’t believe that she was worth the $400,000 it costs to buy the prescribed medications. However, Oregon’s system did offer her the (less expensive) assisted suicide alternative. ABCNEWS.com reported on this atrocity in Oregon:
Dr. Jonathan Groner, clinical professor of surgery at OSU College of Medicine and Public Health in Columbus, Ohio, said some patients may want to prolong their lives for a life-cycle event, like a birth or wedding.
“A course of chemo would not cure, but would subdue the cancer long enough to be meaningful,” he told ABCNEWS.com. “There are many people with slow-growing but nonetheless metastatic cancer for whom death, while inevitable, is many years away.”
“The problem with the Oregon plan is it sounds like administrators, not physicians, are making treatment decisions…”[1]
Unfortunately Barbara is not alone. Randy Stroup, a 53-year-old Oregon man, also received a letter that, according to Fox News, said: “…the state would not cover Stroup’s pricey treatment, but would pay for the cost of physician-assisted suicide.”[2]
The coming elections at both the state and federal level are critically important to all of us. One issue is whether we will preserve our current quality and freedoms of health care or be under the control of a statewide or nationwide government health care system. Under a mandatory government-controlled health care system, someone else would determine whether or not you or a loved one will get the health care that is needed.
For additional examples of what people have been subjected to under universal government health care, see our other articles posted under the topic “Government Health Care” on our website: http://www.childandfamilyprotection.org.
1 James, Susan. “Death drugs cause uproar in Oregon,” Aug. 6, 2008. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=5517492&page=1
2 Springer, Dan. “Oregon Offers Terminal Patients Doctor-Assisted Suicide Instead of Medical Care” FoxNews.com July 28, 2008. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,392962,00.html
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