Reversing A Bad Decision In Medicine

Holly Pitt Young at Townhall.com posted an article about the availability of cancer treatment drugs under the government run healthcare program in Britain. 

According to the article:

“British cancer patients are routinely denied access to critical life-extending drugs because of their costs.

“The Telegraph noted two year ago, that the British health care system’s decision to deny patients four kidney cancer drugs on the NHS was denounced by doctors as ‘poor’ and ‘unsuitable’. They said it was a “tragedy” that Britain’s leading role in cancer research was not being translated into treatment for all patients, who were often left struggling to pay for the drugs themselves. The decision has led patients to mortgage their house in order to obtain the drugs and treatment they need to survive.”

Unfortunately, the denial of drugs to cancer patients in Britain is commonplace.  That kind of medical decision made by the government is coming to America.  The Food and Drug Administration has created a new standard that would allow patients who could afford the late-stage cancer drug Avastin and other drugs like it to use these drugs, while those who cannot afford the drugs would be denied their use.

The article reports:

“They are considering “de-labeling” the drug for breast cancer patients – essentially allowing Medicare and private insurance to deny coverage of the drug under their policies.

“The FDA has moved a final decision about the fate of Avastin and breast cancer patients until after the elections. Not a great sign.”

I have no idea how to make a decision to provide or not to provide drugs to terminal cancer patients that will extend their lives.  However, doctors take an oath where they pledge to ‘do no harm’, and doctors have the knowledge to make this type of decision.  Let’s let the doctors make the decisions about what drugs to use–not the government.