quote:

In Arizona, 98 low-income patients approved for organ transplants have been told they are no longer getting them because of state budget cuts.

The patients receive medical coverage through the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), the state's version of Medicaid. While it may be common for private insurance companies or government agencies to change eligibility requirements for medical procedures ahead of time, medical ethicists say authorizing a procedure and then reversing that decision is unheard of....

[F]acing a $1.5 billion budget deficit, Arizona has cut out all state-funded lung transplants, some bone-marrow transplants and some heart transplants — including transplants for the condition Shepherd has.

"To basically renege on what you promised was [going to] be a chance at life is a very, very bitter indictment of the ethics of the Legislature," says Arthur Caplan, head of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Caplan calls the reversal "awful" behavior because Arizona is going back on a covenant it made with its patients, and because these are patients for whom time is critical — patients who spent months, some years, thinking they were covered.

quote:

ORIGINAL: jlf1961

The Real Death Panels.

In an effort to save $4 million plus dollars, REPUBLICAN state lawmakers ended funding for patients on Medicaid to get organ transplants.

quote:


In Arizona, 98 low-income patients approved for organ transplants have been told they are no longer getting them because of state budget cuts.

The patients receive medical coverage through the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), the state's version of Medicaid. While it may be common for private insurance companies or government agencies to change eligibility requirements for medical procedures ahead of time, medical ethicists say authorizing a procedure and then reversing that decision is unheard of....

[F]acing a $1.5 billion budget deficit, Arizona has cut out all state-funded lung transplants, some bone-marrow transplants and some heart transplants — including transplants for the condition Shepherd has.
"To basically renege on what you promised was [going to] be a chance at life is a very, very bitter indictment of the ethics of the Legislature," says Arthur Caplan, head of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Caplan calls the reversal "awful" behavior because Arizona is going back on a covenant it made with its patients, and because these are patients for whom time is critical — patients who spent months, some years, thinking they were covered.

i think the only reaction i can come up with in regards to this is: horrified.

It makes me want to cry, actually. Being a recipient of a liver transplant i know somewhat what these 98 people are going through...in and out of the hospital, the excruciating pain from literally feeling your organs failing. Wondering "if I go to sleep, will I wake up tomorrow?" Frantically writing some sort of letter or will to your loved ones (mine was on notebook paper, i was 15).

i like how they call it Arizona Health Care "Cost Containment System" so, their way to contain cost is to effectively sentence 98 people to death. Who, most likely did nothing more than have the unfortunate luck of being born with or developing a grave disease. How much money is this going to actually save them? How much is the monetary value of 98 innocent lives? i wonder how long it'll take them to wash that much blood off their hands?

< Message edited by YoungBlondeSlave -- 11/19/2010 9:28:07 PM >

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A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice. Bill Cosby

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings. Salvador Dali

(in reply to jlf1961)

quote:

ORIGINAL: KenDckey

JLF  actually I believe it is a lack of money period.   All kinds of things have been cut.   all but 2 (if I remember right) state parks, all roadside rests, road construction except federal projects,

I will agree it is a shame, but not unexpected.   I read it in the AZ Republic.   Sad but true

quote:

ORIGINAL: popeye1250

Yup, "Death Panels" and Obama's healthcare hasn't even kicked in yet!
His plan is shit! They need to start from scratch again.

quote:

ORIGINAL: thishereboi

I remember a while back, posters coming onto cm and bragging about being a part of the Arizona boycott. The ones in charge there were acting like racist assholes and the answer was to boycott the whole state and make everyone living there suffer. Now that the state is having financial difficulties, and having to make cutbacks we are suddenly worried about the individuals. They were living there when everyone was gungho about driving the state into bankruptcy to prove how evil they are, so why are you worried now?