August 29, 2009 in Letters

Forget socialized care

The Spokesman-Review

Socialized health care is a good idea! Not even.

When my husband was diagnosed with recurrence of leukemia, the oncologist wanted to treat him as an outpatient at the oncology clinic to allow him a “clean environment.”

We were to travel daily for eight days. Medicare couldn’t authorize that for three weeks. His doctor, knowing the time sensitiveness of his condition, hospitalized him for the eight days, as days of delay could mean dying or non-response to treatment.

By the time the bureaucrats at Medicare made their decision (for outpatient care) he was 17 days into treatment. The inpatient hospital costs were $2,000-plus a day more than clinic. Our co-pay was $150 a day, which for many people would mean going home to die.

The rich get to live, but the poor are expendable. Welcome to the nightmare of socialized medicine. I hope you don’t have to join us. The bottom line is it costs government and us way more than if done in clinic, and he has gone into remission.