Ted Kennedy’s Cancer Treatment Under Socialized Medicine

By Duane Lester • May 22nd, 2008

When it was revealed that Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seizure was caused by a malignant brain tumor, I posted a short post on it, offering my prayers to him and his family. One of my readers asked an interesting question following that post. “Randy” wrote:

Would Kennedy’s cancer treatment be allowed by the British Health System?

His comment made me wonder how Sen. Kennedy’s treatment would have been different under a socialized health care system.

What If…

All American Blogger wishes Sen. Kennedy a full and speedy recovery. The Senator and his family are in my prayers.

Imagine for a minute that Ted Kennedy lived in an America where the government ran health care, and he was what pundits and talking heads like to call a “working class” American.

He’s sitting in his kitchen, reading the paper and eating his morning breakfast when he starts convulsing uncontrollably. His wife makes the call for an ambulance, only to be told that the ambulance would be there as soon as their government mandated break was complete. Unlike this British man, who died from a heart attack five minutes from an ambulance station while two ambulance crews took an EU-mandated break, the ambulance arrives before he expires and gets him into the back of the vehicle.

Ted rides to the nearest hospital and his ambulance parks outside the building, but he is not unloaded. Instead he sits. And sits. And sits. For nearly five hours, Kennedy waits in the ambulance, “in a holding pattern”, waiting to be allowed in the hospital. He can’t be allowed in because the hospital can’t treat him immediately, and they have a government mandate that says patients have to be treated within four hours of admission. So rather than being treated right away, Kennedy is stacked outside the hospital in an ambulance. During that time, other 911 emergencies are left unattended by his ambulance because it is being used to meet government regulations.

Finally, he is allowed into the hospital and seen by a doctor. Like 55 other people this month, his cancer is misdiagnosed. The doctor finds Kennedy’s seizure to be caused by high blood pressure. Instead of treatment for cancer, he is given medication for his blood pressure.

In the following months, he has more seizures, resulting in more visits to the hospital. Kennedy’s health suffers from these visits, as he finds himself exposed to germs and viruses from the hands of the doctors treating him. While he is one of the 300,000 people to get sick from the hospital, he is fortunate. None of the doctors, even the ones who go almost 20 patients before washing their hands, give him MRSA. Eventually, he takes to demanding doctors wash their hands before they touch him.

Finally, after more than a year, his cancer is properly diagnosed. However, Kennedy and his family are shocked when they are told that he is too old to be treated for the disease. The doctor tells him, “The health service cannot afford to provide free care to everyone. And really, with your age we can’t justify free treatment if it were unlikely to do you good for long.” Later, another doctor tell him that the treatment is very expensive and because of his age, he won’t be treated.

Kennedy takes his case to the media, and the outrage that follows compels the health service to treat his cancer. But before the treatment begins, another obstacle blocks his path to a cancer free twilight. He’s too fat. The head of the local hospital tells him, “We have limited resources and it’s sensible to use money where we know treatment is going to work.”

When the Secretary of Government Health Services is asked about the policy, it isn’t rejected, but embraced.

“Hospitals are absolutely entitled to set their own treatment guidelines.”

Kennedy again appeals to the public via the media and another outrage ensues. The government is shamed into treating him despite his weight. His doctors recommend their treatment, but he knows that by adding the drug Avastin, his chances of survival are increased. He mentions this to his doctor. He is told that there is a three year waiting list for the drug. Plus, it is just too expensive.

“If millions of dollars are spent on cancer treatment then there will be less to spend on, say, heart disease and arthritis. For example, it costs $40,000 for a two-year supply of Avastin. That could buy six hip replacements.”

Kennedy says he has the money to buy the drug himself, and will if the doctor will approve it. He is told that, despite the fact that three other patients in the area are paying for the drug privately and still receiving treatment, for him to do that would result in him forfeiting free treatment in the future.

A government spokesman explains, “The government says the rules on this are clear. You can’t mix and match between private care and public care.

Patients cannot, in one episode of treatment, be treated by the public and then allowed, as part of the same episode and the same treatment, to pay money for more drugs. That way lies the end of the founding principles of the system.

You either go all public and it is free, or you go all private and you pay for everything.

If those who can afford it start ‘topping up’ their care it will create a two tier system. What about those who can’t afford Avastin?”

Eventually, Kennedy is allowed to pay for the drug himself, but by then the cancer is advanced and the drug does little to help.

Back to Reality

This is the ultimate worst case scenario, but incredibly, it uses example from real life. Every problem Ted faced in the above story a subject in socialized health care faced somewhere. The quotes used in the story were taken from the articles. They were just attributed to a faceless, fictional government entity to illustrate the logic and compassion of bureaucracy.

The only change from reality made in the above is Ted social and financial status. If Ted faced the same illness with his current power, influence and financial means, he would not be subjected to any of the above treatment. He would fly to a country that would treat his sickness in the best method possible. After all, that is what Canada’s Liberal PM candidate Belinda Stronach did when she was diagnosed with cancer.

This article isn’t written with disrespect to Ted Kennedy or his current situation, but to illustrate the difference between the system we have now, and the system he, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton advocate. It’s true that not everyone has access to the same treatment Kennedy received, but that would not change under government run health care. As I have shown, the treatment would be far worse for us, but far better for the elites. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, free market health care is the unequal distribution of good health care. Socialized medicine is the equal distribution of poor health care.

Except for those who can travel to the free market.