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NRL News
Terminally Ill Oregon Patients Denied Treatment In Washington state, the showdown for ballot initiative I-1000 is entering the final stages. This November, Washington voters will be faced with the decision whether to become the second state to legalize physician-assisted suicide. Washington’s neighbor Oregon, the only state to legalize assisting suicide, has over the past 10 years given numerous examples of how dangerous such legalization can be. Over the past several weeks, two such examples have been the cause of much outrage in Oregon, unnerving even many of those sympathetic to proposals such as 1-1000. Within the month of one another, Oregon’s state-sponsored health care plan has issued letters denying payment for cancer treatments for two different patients. However, in the same devastating letters, the state reiterated that it would pay for drugs to commit suicide. Oregon is the only state that both allows assisted suicide and openly rations health care. Pro-lifers, and others, have long warned of the deadly consequences that flow from the motivation to reduce costs. Cancer drugs can cost anywhere from $3,000 to $6,000 a month. Lethal medication, on the other hand, costs less that $100. As a general rule, the state-run Oregon insurance plan only covers drugs that meet the “five-year, 5 percent rule”—meaning, a 5% survival rate after five years. If a patient did not meet this exclusive and outdated criterion, all that he would be entitled to would be medication for palliative care—and to a reminder of the option of assisted suicide. It is not hard to imagine the distress that Barbara Wagner must have been in when she learned that her lung cancer had returned, but on top of that, she received notice that Oregon’s health plan would not pay for her treatment. Adding insult to injury, the letter did remind Wagner that the state would be happy to pay for lethal barbiturates, should Wagner want to participate in physician-assisted suicide. Wagner told KATU in Springfield, Oregon, “I told them, I said, ‘Who do you guys think you are?’ You know, to say that you’ll pay for my dying, but you won’t pay to help me possibly live longer?’” A study had shown that the drug that Wagner’s doctor recommended tended to extend the life of the patient. After a year, about 10% more patients were alive, thanks to the drug. Wagner did appeal the decision, but was twice denied. Upon physician urging, a pharmaceutical company agreed to give her the expensive medication at no cost. The letter, which has been sent to many other terminal patients throughout Oregon, made its way to Randy Stroup of Dexter about a month after Wagner’s letter. The 53-year-old with terminal prostate cancer learned that his doctor’s request for a treatment had too been rejected. The treatment, while not a cure, could ease Stroup’s pain and extend his life by six months. Stroup told the Eugene Register-Guard, “What is six months of life worth? To me it’s worth a lot. This is my life they’re playing with.” Upon appeal, Oregon, facing a backlash of public sentiment, reversed its decision and agreed to fund Stroup’s treatment. If Washington follows Oregon’s lead, the state can look forward to similar and disturbing results. When those who are paying for health care fail to be stewards of health and life and instead become judges making quality-of-life and cost containment decisions, the situation is dangerous enough. However, when those same payers encourage legal prescriptions, they are saying to the sick and vulnerable that they are not worth the cost and they are not valued. |