WP: Schiavo Case Puts Face on Rising Medical Costs

[kskiska]

GOP Leaders Try to Cut Spending as They Fight to Save One of Program's Patients

As Republican leaders in Congress move to trim billions of dollars from the Medicaid health program, they are simultaneously intervening to save the life of possibly the highest-profile Medicaid patient: Terri Schiavo.

The Schiavo case may put a human face on the problem of rising medical costs, both at the state and federal levels. In Florida, where Gov. Jeb Bush (R) is pushing a dramatic restructuring of the Medicaid program, the cost of Schiavo's care has become political fodder. In Washington, where a fight over Medicaid spending threatens to scuttle the 2006 budget plan, the role of the program in preserving Schiavo's life is beginning to receive attention.

"At every opportunity, Tom DeLay has sanctimoniously proclaimed his concern for the well-being of Terri Schiavo, saying he is only trying to ensure she has the chance 'we all deserve,' " the liberal Center for American Progress said in a statement Monday, echoing complaints of Democratic lawmakers and medical ethicists. "Just last week, DeLay marshaled a budget resolution through the House of Representatives that would cut funding for Medicaid by at least $15 billion, threatening the quality of care for people like Terri Schiavo."

DeLay spokesman Dan Allen fired back: "The fact that they're tying a life issue to the budget process shows just how disconnected Democrats are to reality."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58069-2005Mar22.html

[CAG]

1. Its amazing people can't see thru the hypocrisy

DeLay spokesman Dan Allen fired back: "The fact that they're tying a life issue to the budget process shows just how disconnected Democrats are to reality."

NO, YOU JERKWAD, IT SHOWS EXACTLY HOW CONNECTED WE ARE TO REALITY!!!!
The repubs want all of these services, BUT THEY NEVER WANT TO PAY FOR IT!!!!!

[rodeodance]

3. Medicaid's share of Schiavo's care "is a big chunk,"

........Lawyers for Schiavo's husband and guardian, Michael Schiavo, have said repeatedly that Medicaid finances Terri Schiavo's drug costs, but it is not entirely clear how dependent Schiavo's caregivers are on the joint federal-state health insurance program for the poor and disabled. In 1993, Michael Schiavo received a medical malpractice judgment of more than $750,000 in his wife's name, according to a report by her court-appointed guardian ad litem. The money was placed in a trust fund administered by an independent trustee for Schiavo's care.

Michael Schiavo's lawyers have said that $40,000 to $50,000 remains. Patient care at the Florida hospice where Schiavo lives averages about $80,000 a year, but the hospice now pays for much of her care. For two years, Medicaid has covered other medical costs, including prescription drugs, the attorneys have said in published reports.

Medicaid's share of Schiavo's care "is a big chunk," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who until this year was involved in the case as a state senator. "Governor Bush and President Bush are both professing deep concern for the rights of one disabled person, yet their rhetoric doesn't match their actions," she said.......

[Dr.Phool]

10. DeLay is an expert when it comes to telling sheeple

That black is white, night is day, and nothing is more important in a time of war than tax cuts.

I think that most of the country viewed him as a buffoonish demagogue from Texas before. I think now, they're waking up to the reality of just how dangerous he is. Now firmly entrenched in the spotlight, he'll be much easier to take down when he gets indicted.

The first rule of the Mafia was stay out of the spotlight, and don't attract attention to yourself. It invites scrutiny.

[saigon68]

23. HE WILL PISS ON POOR PEOPLE AND MINORITIES

HE IS EVIL and a racist.

[Auntie Bush]

18. What I don't understand is...if Terri is on Medicaid she can't

have any money. So she is not on Medicaid or she has no money.
How can she have thousands of dollars in the bank and get Medicare? Something is wrong here.

[politicat]

27. She doesn't.

Medical care of the sort Ms. Schiavo requires cost about $60,000 a year in 1993, and is up to about $85,000 now. It's been 12 years since the settlement came in, which gave her about $700,000.

So, adding it up, assuming a constant level of annual increase of $2000 a year,
Year -- costs/yr
1993 -- $60,000
1994 -- $62,000
1995 -- $64,000
1996 -- $66,000
1997 -- $68,000
1998 -- $70,000
1999 -- $72,000
2000 -- $74,000
2001 -- $76,000
2002 -- $78,000
2003 -- $80,000
2004 -- $82,000
2005 -- $84,000

Her total costs have been about $936,000 already. Her fund management was probably giving a return of about 5% on average (since some years she would have done better and some far worse) so she was probably eating capital every year. We also have no idea how much debt she had before the settlement.

I'd say that that 40-50 grand is what Mr. Schiavo has left, not what Mrs. Sciavo has left. And Medicaid probably started covering meds a couple years ago, when it was obvious that she had money to maintain partial care, but not all of it, and not for any length of time.

[MockSwede]

8. Republican Reality

I read this reality as: Republicans say, "I've got mine ; you can go to hell .

[jojo54]

2. Blinders are the Repukes primary headgear

They have tunnel vision, and when they believe they're thinking clearly, it's a double standard. Frigging assholes can't see the forest for the trees.......oh that's right, they're cutting them all down!!

[enough]

4. Kick

[inchhigh]

5. Speechless....

"The fact that they're tying a life issue to the budget process shows just how disconnected Democrats are to reality."

[NewYorkerfromMass]

6. disconnected FROM reality

Delay's spokesman seems to be disconnected from proper English, as well as reality.

[spooked911]

7. Man, how much must it suck to be Delay's spokesman??

What a soul-sucking job that must be.

[yorkiemommie1]

9. probably doesn't have a soul

so no problem, huh? lol

[chomskysright]

11. Bush pulls plug on 60% of brain injured returning vets...

Letter to the Editor:

"President Bush slashes funding for returning brain injured veterans"


There has been a lot of interest associated with the sad case of Terri Shiavo, a brain injured woman who has been in a vegetative state for the past 14 years.

Compassion and care is necessary for people who have survived a Traumatic Brain Injury. Sixty percent of veterans returning from Iraq have traumatic brain injuries according to doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Unfortunately, the Bush administration recently completely zeroed out funding for the Federal TBI Act, which provides assistance for these veterans.






http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20 ...

[Lindacooks]

12. This quote makes me so angry:

"The fact that they're tying a life issue to the budget process shows just how disconnected Democrats are to reality."

Hey, bub, medical care and money ARE tied together - there is no separating them. If you don't have money, you won't get care. PERIOD. THAT'S reality.

[NYC]

14. Simple sentence explains American health care.

...If you don't have money, you won't get care...

That's all there is to it.

[pokercat999]

25. A winning health care argument. Tie medical care to the military.

During discussions with folks about medical care in the US I often start the conversation with "the US has the best military in the world, right?". I always get quick agreement on that point. My next statement goes something like "we have that military because we poured in the time and money necessary to protect ourselves, right?" Again I get quick approval and I come back with "Well why can't we do the same thing with medical services then?" "Why not have a US Medical Service run very much like the military. Committed to the very best health care in the world, free to all Americans with all our Doctors, Nurses, and other medical personnel treated like the hero's they often are? They would serve in just the same manner as our military with free training based on their commitment, in a branch of the US Government Service, etc."

It even gets the average red blooded, red state, lock stepping, neo-con wannabe thinking. Of course they start to throw up all kinds of objections but you just keep referring back to our military hero's and how good Americans including those medical personnel almost always will put up with personal sacrifice for the public good. I think this is a winning argument for our next Democratic President to be elected in 2008.

[NYC]

26. Thanks for the advice.

Maybe this is an inroad.

[sonicx]

19. Coming from the party that politicizes family matters.

[Democracy White]

13. Two faced hypocrisy in the Republican Party

And WE'RE disconnected from reality? Puh-leeze. You need to wake up people!

Dee

[V Lee]

15. Well I'm definitely "reality-based!"

Wasn't there an infamous quote from some Repub criticizing Democrats/liberal for being reality-based? And now suddenly we're not?

>> What’s on Bill’s mind? Political commentary with attitude and more at http://www.BillsBrain.com > Reality based since 1963!

[ckramer]

16. Schiavo case highlights poor care for dying in US

The debate over keeping Terri Schiavo alive should highlight how badly death is handled in the United States, end-of-life activists said this week.

Huge advances in medical research and technology have made doctors focus on saving life at all costs, even when it is clearly hopeless, they said. And this can result in torment for the very patients they are trying to help.

"We will all die and everyone that we love will all die and yet our health care system is so poorly equipped to provide the kind of end-of-life care that we all want," said Betty Ferrell, an expert in pain management and end-of-life care at California's City of Hope hospital.

Several reports in recent years have shown that most deaths are not so peaceful.

In 1997 and in 2002 the Institute of Medicine, an independent body that advises the U.S. government, said the U.S. health care system needs to improve the care it gives to dying and chronically ill children and adults alike, as well as the support given to families.

It said patients are denied painkilling drugs by doctors afraid of losing their licenses, or kept hooked up to uncomfortable machines to prolong life by only a few days or weeks.

Another report in 2002 from the nonprofit consumer coalition Last Acts found that more than 70 percent of Americans say they would choose to die at home but only 25 percent do.

It said fewer than 60 percent of hospitals offer specialized end-of-life services and just 14 percent offer palliative care to make sure a patient's last days and hours are comfortable.

"The ethical dilemmas are not just the court cases. They are also the more everyday dilemmas of when do we stop chemotherapy, when do we do surgery," Ferrell said in a telephone interview.

"If someone that I love is dying, what do I want? You want them to not be in pain. The data are very clear that we do a bad job of pain management," she added.

Family members are offered little useful advice on just how to manage a loved one's last days.

"When do you withdraw fluids and foods? Do you continue chemotherapy?" Ferrell asked.

"If your mother has ovarian cancer and they tell you her bowel is obstructed, do you want them to take her to surgery? The odds of your mother dying are very high. Do you want your mother to die, alone, in the operating room?"

But doctors and nurses are trained to save lives, not to end them.

"Advances in health care and technology have created this illusion that we can live forever," Ferrell said.

The American Medical Association agrees.

"In light of these advances, there are concerns that some of these technologies have resulted in merely prolonging the suffering of dying patients, and that the needs of people suffering during the terminal phase of their lives are not adequately addressed," the AMA says in a statement on end-of-life care.

link

[Mr.Green93]

17. Why are feeding tubes allowed

in the first place? The practice sounds barbaric.

[bobbieinok]

22. my dad had feeding tube for 2+ years....he was at home,completely

aware and mobile

when I first heard he was going to have this, I freaked out.....but I learned if you're mobile and aware it can be lived with......

most people with feeding tubes are in nursing homes, not mobile and often not aware......then it seems problematic if there appears no hope for improvement

[Yavin4]

20. Republicans Do Not Have The Capacity To Understand Irony

This is how they get away with everything.

[AzDar]

21. Wow, now they're recycling old Jeff "Propa"Gannon lines...

'divorced/disconnected' from reality?!?

[Kool Kitty]

24. Someone should tell Dan Allen

that his boss' actions as opposed to his rhetoric shows just how disconnected Tom is from the rest of the human race.

[not fooled]

28. ultimate irony: history of religious nutjobs' attitudes toward advanced...

...medical technology e.g. feeding tubes: when these medical advances first became available, extremist religious kooks were AGAINST their use because doing so interfered with "God's will".

So, the same nuts that now scream to use every lifesaving device for someone with no hope of recovery previously screamed just as loudly for banning their use. :eyes: :eyes:

Can you say "no rational consistency to their stance"?

Just like abortion, not an issue in its present toxic form until the 'puke strategists figured out how to use trumped-up moralistic issues to rule the morans.