[Magdalen] Fwd: Breaking News Alert: Cancer has spread to brain, Jimmy Carter says

[Jim Guthrie]

From: Grace Cangialosi

>She was of the opinion that it is a poor use of resources to treat him--or 
>anyone--at this age. With Medicare the cost is being borne by taxpayers, and it

I don’t think ex Presidents  are on Medicare.

>would be more responsible to move to palliative care. Obviously, this is a 
>highly personal decision, but
>what do you all think?

For starters, the fixed charges on Radiation Therapy are already there, so the 
big part of radiation therapy is a sunk cost, and so it doesn’t make any 
difference  in use of resources. Costs of chemo are mainly borne by the profits 
of big pharma, so the resources are, vis a vis other uses of those resources are 
not so relevant either. One can make the argument that the profits of Big Pharma 
are a misuse of resources, but that's simply irrelevant to the patient and 
should NEVER by a part of the decision making.

One can also make the argument that the presence of Medicare and Medicaid and 
Employer Health Insurance long ago gave  Big Pharma (and the rest of the medical 
business) carte blanche to jack up costs for everyone. Like Willie Sutton said . 
. .

But that's hardly a "misuse of resources" as far as a patient is concerned,

Now, one can make the argument that the presence of Medicare and Medicaid and 
Employer Health Insurance long ago gave  Big Pharma (and the rest of the medical 
business) carte blanche to jack up costs for everyone. Like Willie Sutton said . 
. .

I realize the "use of resources" is part of the Republican "Let 'em die so I don’t 
have to pay for them" philosopy of the modern Republicans blame as Social 
Security, Food Stamps and the rest of the Social Safety Net), but I think one 
can’t blithely question the use of resources.

The only time "use of resources" should come into play is when a patient is in 
true end of life decisions -- where the patient can make the determination 
whether they want all necessary steps to prolong their life (by any means 
necessary), or not.

Cheers,
Jim

PS I am grateful that Medicare and my Medicare Supp  take care of the 
$27,000-30,000 treatment that MSK bills them for me every two weeks.