Monday, November 30, 2009

Single-Payer Hell: Drug that extends life for terminal liver cancer patients 'too expensive'

The story of government-run healthcare has a common thread - rationing. Rationing leads to lower quality as there is no incentive to produce expensive life-saving medicines and techniques. No government-run system embodies all that is wrong and unholy with the very concept of Obamacare more than Britain's barbaric, medieval National Health Service (NHS), the 3rd largest employer in the world with more bureaucrats on the payroll than administrators. In Britain, under the draconian NHS, cancer patients are denied life-saving drugs to save money, Alzheimer's patients are denied coverage because the disease is not classified as a health condition, broken arms sometimes take up to 10 months to fix, babies born prematurely are left to die if they come out before a certain date, terminally ill patients, and some that are not ill at all, are put on a fast track to death, grandmas are left to die of starvation, patients with chest pains are sent home with pain pills only to die later that same day, women give birth on the pavement, and in hospital toilets and hallways, and prisoners eat better than NHS patients. More than 1 million people are subject to neglectful care and surgeries have failure rates up to 33%, with some surgeries done or not done in error, and patients die routinely due to filth and blood-splattered equipment. The horror stories go on and on, such as the one's I have written about at the end of this post. BUT... NHS does have money to have violent child predators put on Viagra, and to irreversibly mutilate 12-year olds. Oh yeah - the bureaucrats exempt themselves from NHS and instead get private coverage. Natch.

So it should come as no surprise to anyone that the liberal Utopia of a healthcare system in the U.K. nixes life-extending drugs due to no concern save one - cost.  From the U.K. Telegraph via Jerry Pournelle: Drug for terminal liver cancer patients 'too expensive'. Note the Orwellian acronym for a body of bureaucrats that kill people:
The National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has turned down a new drug to combat advanced liver cancer because it is too expensive to justify the modest benefits it provides.

Nexavar, also called sorafenib, extends the life of terminal patients by an average of 2.8 months but some have lived for over one year. Between 600 and 700 patients out of the 3,000 a year diagnosed with liver cancer would be eligible for treatment with Nexavar.

However the cost to the NHS of treating them would be £9 million a year, a spokesman for Nice said.

Makers of the drug, Bayer, offered to pay for every fourth packet of treatment bringing the NHS cost down to £7.7m but this was still too high given the short amount of time it increases life expectancy by, Nice said.

..."To be told extension of life is not ‘an acceptable use of NHS resources’, however rationally based the rationing system is, will cause unbearable pain and distress to patients and their families.
Of course, bureacrats could care less. They are not healthcare professionals, but rather are just beancounters, ghoulishly putting pricetags on what people's lives are worth. And ObamaCare will be different because...??? For those that are proponents of nationalized healthcare, explain these statistics and tell me how Obamacare will be different:

Average cancer survival rate in U.S: 68%
Average cancer survival rate in Canada: 55%
Average cancer survival rate in Europe: 45%

Average prostate cancer survival rate in U.S: 81%
Average prostate cancer survival rate in Britain: 43%

Average breast cancer survival rate in U.S: 83.9%
Average breast cancer survival rate in Europe: 73.1%
Average breast cancer survival rate in the U.K: 69.7%
Our systems is not broken. It is the best in the world. It costs more money, but that cost can be reduced by passing tort reform that would lower ridiculously high malpractice insurance rates. Also, with a stroke of a pen Congress can break down the barriers that currently preclude insurance companies from competing across state lines. All of a sudden, every citizen will have 1,500 choices for their care. Nationalizing our healthcare will only lead to medieval treatment such as that in the NHS system.
Previously:
Single-Payer Hell: Bleeding Pregnant Woman Refused Scan, Lied To, Sent Home, Loses Baby Boy
Single-Payer Hell: 70 Patients Dead Due To Neglect, Filth, Blood-Splattered Equipment
Single-Payer Hell: In Britain While Millions Suffer Under NHS "Healthcare," NHS Staff Get PRIVATE TREATMENT!!!
Single-Payer Hell: British NHS kills grandfather anyway after he beat cancer
Single-Payer Hell: Daughter saves mother, 80, left by doctors to starve to death
Single-Payer Hell: British NHS Takes 10 Months To Fix Badly Broken Arm
U.K. healthcare epiphany: You know, we should really be encouraging old people to kill themselves
British NHS doesn't have money to treat cancer patients, but has money for sex change of 12-year old boy
Single-Payer Hell: Life-Saving Drug Nixed In U.K. To Save Cost
Single-Payer Hell: A mother in the U.K.: 'Doctors told me it was against the rules to save my premature baby'
Single-Payer Hell: Patients With Terminal Illnesses Made To Die Prematurely Under British Health Care System - NHS. Death Panels are real!
Single-Payer Hell: Prisoners Eat Better Than NHS Patients
Single-Payer Hell: British patients sue over 33% failure rate for operations
Single-Payer Hell: In Britain, 'Cruel and neglectful' care of one million NHS patients exposed
Single-Payer Hell: Man collapses with ruptured appendix... three weeks after NHS doctors 'took it out'
Single-Payer Hell: Babies In The U.K. Born In Hospital Corridors, Toilets
Single-Payer Hell: British NHS Deny Alzheimers Funding Because "Alzheimer's Is Not A Health Condition"
Single-Payer Hell: In Britain, Unincarcerated Child Molester Being Given Viagra!
Single-Payer Hell: Woman in U.K. Denied Ambulance, Gives Birth On Pavement
The British National Health Service is the 3rd largest employer IN THE WORLD! Behind Chinese army, Indian rail
British National Health Service Sends Patient With Chest Pains Home With Pain Pills, Patient Dies

1 comments:

  1. Hi there. Where are you getting the 68% survival rate? When you click the supporting link the story indicaters that the US has an overall 60% survival rate vs Canada's 55% survival rate. The 5% difference is still quite large however at first blush you seem to say that the difference is actually 13%.

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