Republican Death Panel Underway

When the possibility of universal health care was nearly reality, the Party of No concocted creative and untrue reasons for Americans to oppose something that was in their best interests and dare anyone say, "For the Common Good"?

The most creative fantasy was Death Panels and Arizona presents the first reality.

The U.S. has never fought a war without raising taxes, yet the Party of No immersed us into two wars amid tax cuts and deficits.

Banks are holding almost $2 Trillion and corporations are hold almost $1 Trillion that would fully fund an economic turn around.

ATR supports exporting jobs. Democrats support sucking money from the poor to feed slot machines and enrich already wealthy slot barn owners.

We seem to have our priorities skewed.



Arizona Death Panel Claims Another Victim

Tucson University Medical Center has confirmed that a patient who was refused a liver transplant due to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s decision to cut the state benefit that would have made the transplant possible, has died. The patient had been scheduled for the needed transplant but was dropped from the waiting list on October 1st when the cuts went into effect.

Please allow the preceding paragraph to sink into your consciousness for a moment.

The Arizona budget that previously provided transplants to people in need was $1.4 million. As there were 99 people on the waiting list for transplants at the time the cuts went into effect, the net result is that the State of Arizona valued each of these lives at something less than $14,000 a person.

Today, there are only 97 on the waiting list as two have passed away.

Can this really be happening in the United States?

I understand that life is tough and things can’t always work out as we would like. However, I cannot help but be struck by the emptiness of the argument put forth by those who suggest that government need not look out for these people because charitable Americans will always step up and help in these circumstances.

There are lots of reasons why people don’t come through in these circumstances. Often, they simply don’t know the need is there – which is precisely why they should be willing to support funding a government program such as what previously existed in Arizona.

On Monday, a bill will be introduced by Democrats in the Arizona State Senate restoring the funds that were cut. The bill will pay for the restoration by closing a corporate tax loophole.

Let’s hope that the Arizona GOP, the party in control of Arizona’s legislature, stop acting like a bunch of cold-hearted pigs and pass this legislation before anyone else dies.

Here’s something else to think about. With all the bellyaching about how the new health care reform law is a step along the way of America’s march to socialism, you might consider that this would not have been permitted to happen in those nations who offer government sponsored health care.

Is it possible that our system has some negatives when compared to these other systems after all?

For those willing to help as we wait to see if Arizona gets its head out of its rear, you can make a contribution to the National Transplants Assistance fund at www.natfund.org

Two Dead Since Arizona Medicaid Program Slashed Transplant Coverage
Hospital Confirms Former Patient Died While Awaiting Liver Transplant

Two Arizona Medicaid recipients denied potentially life-saving organ transplants have died, even as Arizona doctors, transplant survivors and some lawmakers push to restore health care benefits slashed last fall.

On Oct. 1, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System stopped paying for seven types of transplants that the state's GOP governor, Jan Brewer, and GOP-led legislature said they could no longer afford. The state faces a projected $1 billion program deficit by July 2011.

They eliminated heart transplants for non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, lung transplants, pancreatic transplants, some bone marrow transplants, and liver transplants for patients infected with hepatitis C. Arizona also restricted coverage of prosthetics, eliminated podiatric services, preventive dental services, and wellness and physical exams for adult Medicaid enrollees

A former University of Arizona Medical Center patient waiting for a new liver died on Dec. 28 -- the second person to die since the cuts went into effect, according to Dr. Rainer Gruessner, chairman of surgery at the University of Arizona Medical Center in Tucson.

On Thursday, surgery department spokeswoman Jo Marie Gellerman confirmed that the patient, who died at another facility, "was our patient. He was on our list." She declined to identify the patient, citing medical confidentiality.

On Nov. 28, Mark Price, a 37-year-old leukemia patient from Goodyear, Ariz., died before he could obtain a $250,000 bone marrow transplant that an anonymous donor offered to fund after hearing media reports about Price's plight.

According to a Nov. 29 report by ABC's Phoenix affiliate KTAR, AHCCCS said Price's transplant was not covered because bone marrow donations from unrelated donors fail. Price's doctor said such procedures succeed 42 percent of the time. Price's family said his home went into foreclosure as he struggled with accumulating medical expenses.

The reductions in Arizona's safety net for the poor have drawn criticism from physicians as well as transplant recipients. Both groups have particularly attacked the practice of denying services to sick patients who had qualified for transplants before Arizona, with federal approval, changed its law. They warn that Arizona's actions may be a harbinger for the rest of the country as needs continue to outpace budgets.