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Friday, March 5, 2010

What President Obama Should Say to Mrs. Natoma Canfield

What President Obama Should Say to Mrs. Natoma Canfield - John R. Graham - Critical Condition on National Review Online.

The President missed a "teachable moment" when he shared a woman's personal health history.

2 comments:

Kyle Garlett said...

I found your post on NRO and really appreciate your "advice" for Obama. Like Natoma Canfield, I too had cancer many years ago when I was a part of a large group plan. I then left, exhausted COBRA, and purchased an individual plan here in California. Since then I've also had a heart transplant.

My yearly premiums are more than $7,000 a year and that's to say nothing of my deductibles, out of pockets, and prescription expenses. And I absolutely do not want to see Obamacare passed.

Yes, health insurance is expensive. But I'm alive today because my doctors and I had ready access to the therapies I needed, when I needed them. It's tough to afford, but if my option to bring down costs is to turn over those life-saving decisions to a bureaucrat making his calls based on a balance sheet, it's an expense I'll have to live with. And live is the operative word. I am deathly afraid of a system that might view me and my long history as a cancer patient as too risky for a heart transplant, and possibly too expensive for society to risk it.

MRH said...

For what is worth, Obama apparently asked for permission to use that letter (at least that is what the local media here in Cleveland reported while interviewing Mrs. Canfield).

As for the "teachable moment," I agree completely, although it's not
obvious to me that $8K/yr is unreasonable. My employer pays something north of $12K/yr for each member in our group policy. That may still be more than she can afford, but that is not a moral question for the insurance company.