One of the problems President Obama has identified in America’s health care system is the prescription of unnecessary tests, performed by doctors driven by greed. He has decried the ripping out of children’s tonsils for pocket change and the hyper-inflation of the amputation of feet in diabetics.
However, it’s unsure what his position is on the repeated testing of a patient with “a virtually universally fatal brain cancer.” After all, if it is almost always deadly, what is the point of all that testing? Just give the patient a little end of life counseling and send them away to die.
That would be cost effective, and is how Great Britain handles things, but in a free market (or as close as health care gets in America to a free market), the patient can pay for whatever tests they want to take, even if they are most than likely to be terminal. And that’s just what Ted Kennedy did:
He suffered from a virtually universally fatal brain cancer. He struggled valiantly and admirably, as he pursued all possible expertise and advanced medical care, just as anyone would do in his place. Kennedy sought out the best doctors, the world leaders in neurosurgery, neuro-oncology, and neuroradiology, from the West Coast to the East Coast of the U.S.
He underwent diagnostic tests using the latest, most advanced imaging technology available in the world. He was treated at some of the most elite medical centers in the country. He received the latest therapies and accessed the most innovative medical care in the world. When he sought out the best doctors, when he needed access to the latest diagnostic tests, the most sophisticated surgical techniques, the most innovative medical therapies, Kennedy enjoyed the best care available anywhere in the world–right here in the U.S.
Sen. Kennedy’s last year of life and his battle with cancer was all about individual choice, timely access to subspecialty trained doctors, access to medical technology, access to new drugs, capitalizing on the unique innovation that distinguishes our medical system, while having the freedom to choose for himself how to deal with disease. This even with a disease that has little chance of survival, even with a disease that would cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for advanced medical care, all for only a small hope of success or for a relatively short prolongation of life without cure.
Kennedy was fully autonomous, empowered by our current health care system as an individual, without needing to limit his options due to government-proven outcomes or “appropriateness” criteria that could take years and would come far too late to matter.
And his own actions, when it mattered most to him, when it was a matter of life and death, must be the strongest endorsement for making sure that health reforms empower Americans and their families, rather than government.
When it came down to it, Sen. Kennedy relied of the health care system created by free market principles, the same health care system with the best cancer survival rate. He didn’t go to Sweden or France or Cuba. He never left the country, but he did leave Massachusetts, even though they have the system the Democrats modeled their health care bill after.
When Kennedy was first diagnosed with brain cancer, I wasted no time writing about what his treatment would be like under socialized medicine.
Thankfully, he didn’t have to go through what others have had to, but it wasn’t because of anything the government had done. It was because profit has motivated people to innovate and create.
Don’t let them deny you the same opportunity.
