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Oregon Health Plan commission tells woman they will pay for doctor assisted suicide, but not for cancer medication to extend her life.
Barbara Wagner’s story: Springfield, Oregon
Rationed healthcare at the state level, a foreshadowing of what will happen under ObamaCare.
More from FRC:
Coverage That’s Ir-Rational
While people in Washington debate the end-of-life issues in the President’s plan, people like Barbara Wagner are already experiencing them. She and others have been in the fight of their lives–and for them. In a chilling new TV report, Barbara talks about her battle with Oregon public health officials who refused to pay for her cancer treatments but did offer to subsidize “physician aid-in dying”–better known as assisted suicide. “I’m not ready to die,” she says, crying. “I said to them, ‘Who do you guys think you are? You’ll pay for my dying, but you won’t pay to help me live longer.’”
And she’s not the only one. Fellow Oregonian Randy Stroup applied for help to foot the bill for chemotherapy. He received a similar response: no to treatment, yes to euthanasia. In the President’s health care reform, rationing isn’t a matter of “if” but “when.” Even the President aired his concerns that “the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here.” The President was clear about his response to these end-of-life issues in June when he said, “Maybe you’re better off not having the surgery but taking the painkiller.” In the push to cut costs, more liberals may push to cut lives short.
Heritage Foundation PS:
