Pulling the plug on grandma

I was lucky enough to have had cancer. Well, lucky enough to have had it and to have survived, at least thus far. It was an advanced renal cell carcinoma and the likelihood of my surviving the surgery was considered low let alone being freed of cancer. I think this may have been partially because of the enormity of the tumor, partly because I had suffered quite a loss of blood and partly because my surgeon admitted to be pretty inexperienced at this. I was 55 at the time (a bit more than 8 years ago) and was otherwise in good health but I was really sick at the time.

After the huge tumor and kidney were removed there was a single metastasis to my scapula and that was quickly removed. At the time surgery was the only recognized therapy so my subsequent survival cancer-free (as far as I know) amounted to pure luck. But that isn't the point of this little note. The point is that had I not had excellent medical insurance I might have been denied coverage for the surgery. Would that have been the "right" decision? Well, you actually can't ask me - I would be no longer qualified to answer.

Ask me if I support capital punishment. The answer is a resounding NO! But if someone killed one of my children or my wife the answer would be a resounding YES! Inconsistent? Of course! My point being one can never ask a victim (or in the case of cancer, "unlucky recipient" - victim connotes intention) to make an impartial policy judgement. I need to recuse myself.

Now with some distance from that terrible time, rational thought is again mine. Should I have been covered? Probably not - the only contravening argument being my otherwise excellent physical condition and my age. But the odds were oh so against me.

Somehow we as a people need to come to grips with the fact that we simply can't afford everything we want. Hard choices have to be made and sometimes bad outcomes happen. I might have died from my disease (not to say that it won't come back to kill me at some point anyway) had I not gotten treatment. But I didn't. Good luck.

But if society said "No, we can't afford to treat you for that. Sorry." would that have been the right decision? Probably.

So, what's the lesson here? When you are arguing about healthcare delivery, please refrain from asking "if you were diagnosed...." The same applies to releasing a loved one from artificial life support. Can we as a society afford the cost of keeping everyone alive at all costs? Of course not, the financial burden is prohibitive. Just don't ask me that question if the cancer returns because you are going to get a different answer. It just shouldn't count.