my dad is a doctor, i talked to him earlier tonight when he told me this situation he currently has:
my dad has a patient who is a 23 year old illegal immigrant. she lives here (orange county, southern california), is married, and has a child born in the us so he's a citizen. until she became ill, she worked as a housekeeper, and her husband worked as well. she came to my dad with a fatal liver condition. she didn't have insurance, but a social worker thought she could get her insurance because her child is a citizen and she's a primary caregiver (MediCal, california's free low-income healthcare). so she got on a transplant list and recently got bumped up to next in line, because she'll probably die in a couple of weeks without it. today the social worker told my dad that she has a sort of MediCal insurance that only covers emergency medicine, and definitely not liver transplants. there isn't anything she can do now; she's going to die and leave her kid and husband behind.
however, my dad thinks he can do something. he thinks if he goes to the media (he thinks la times, i thought 20/20, dateline, or 60 minutes), he can make it a human interest story and get them (the news) to shame the government into letting her have the transplant. his reason for wanting to do so is this: she's a young mother. she may have been here illegaly, but she was by no means a parasite. she worked, her husband works, they're just trying to make a good life for themselves and their child. he feels that he sees many more patients who don't deserve treatment as much as she does: winos who happen to be born here and drink themselves to the brink of death, even 90 year old women who get $10,000 worth of government provided health care to extend their lives a couple of months (knowing the average effects of treatment, you can estimate those kind of times pretty accurately). but she has a real chance to live a lot longer, to still work and to raise her son. basically, to live a life someone would rather have than nothing at all. she's his patient, and doctors usually do everything they possibly can to save their patients lives.
but this is why he feels conflicted: the state can afford to pay for this one patient's transplant ($150,000 immediately, additional $150,000 post transplant), but can it afford to pay for everyone who's not on their own health insurance plan and needs one? there are about 30,000 people every year who require a liver transplant to live. that's $9,000,000,000 alone for liver transplants alone, per year. then there are bone marrow transplants, heart transplants, lung transplants, pancreas transplants... it just goes on. forget the state paying for all of the transplants, can the insurance companies even afford to pay for it (before it's brought up, i don't know how many people don't get transplants because of lack of organs, not just money)? my dad feels strongly that cases like this could be cited as precident for future cases. he's also worried that people will come from other countries in droves for free heatlh care (they already come a lot, my dad sees many, and from all over the world), and that's a financial burden that simply cannot be held currently. but as a doctor, his concern is for his patient, he's not public health administrator, he just tries to cure all of his patients and he feels terrible about this one.
so what would you do? go to a news outlet and try to save this woman's life? or say life isn't fair, and sometimes people have to die because more can be hurt later if one's life is spared?
clarification: the patient only came to my dad because she was sick. he is not a surgeon, he doesn't have a fresh supply of livers to transplant, he cannot act unilateraly and perform this operation without the support of at least 20 other people total, not counting the hospitals themselves, or post-transplant care. he does not have the ability to save her life through his own direct medical actions.
my dad has a patient who is a 23 year old illegal immigrant. she lives here (orange county, southern california), is married, and has a child born in the us so he's a citizen. until she became ill, she worked as a housekeeper, and her husband worked as well. she came to my dad with a fatal liver condition. she didn't have insurance, but a social worker thought she could get her insurance because her child is a citizen and she's a primary caregiver (MediCal, california's free low-income healthcare). so she got on a transplant list and recently got bumped up to next in line, because she'll probably die in a couple of weeks without it. today the social worker told my dad that she has a sort of MediCal insurance that only covers emergency medicine, and definitely not liver transplants. there isn't anything she can do now; she's going to die and leave her kid and husband behind.
however, my dad thinks he can do something. he thinks if he goes to the media (he thinks la times, i thought 20/20, dateline, or 60 minutes), he can make it a human interest story and get them (the news) to shame the government into letting her have the transplant. his reason for wanting to do so is this: she's a young mother. she may have been here illegaly, but she was by no means a parasite. she worked, her husband works, they're just trying to make a good life for themselves and their child. he feels that he sees many more patients who don't deserve treatment as much as she does: winos who happen to be born here and drink themselves to the brink of death, even 90 year old women who get $10,000 worth of government provided health care to extend their lives a couple of months (knowing the average effects of treatment, you can estimate those kind of times pretty accurately). but she has a real chance to live a lot longer, to still work and to raise her son. basically, to live a life someone would rather have than nothing at all. she's his patient, and doctors usually do everything they possibly can to save their patients lives.
but this is why he feels conflicted: the state can afford to pay for this one patient's transplant ($150,000 immediately, additional $150,000 post transplant), but can it afford to pay for everyone who's not on their own health insurance plan and needs one? there are about 30,000 people every year who require a liver transplant to live. that's $9,000,000,000 alone for liver transplants alone, per year. then there are bone marrow transplants, heart transplants, lung transplants, pancreas transplants... it just goes on. forget the state paying for all of the transplants, can the insurance companies even afford to pay for it (before it's brought up, i don't know how many people don't get transplants because of lack of organs, not just money)? my dad feels strongly that cases like this could be cited as precident for future cases. he's also worried that people will come from other countries in droves for free heatlh care (they already come a lot, my dad sees many, and from all over the world), and that's a financial burden that simply cannot be held currently. but as a doctor, his concern is for his patient, he's not public health administrator, he just tries to cure all of his patients and he feels terrible about this one.
so what would you do? go to a news outlet and try to save this woman's life? or say life isn't fair, and sometimes people have to die because more can be hurt later if one's life is spared?
clarification: the patient only came to my dad because she was sick. he is not a surgeon, he doesn't have a fresh supply of livers to transplant, he cannot act unilateraly and perform this operation without the support of at least 20 other people total, not counting the hospitals themselves, or post-transplant care. he does not have the ability to save her life through his own direct medical actions.
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