The reason Obama and democrats want health care is to skim it. Get the
income flow to the government then dumb down services.

For the idiot sheeples that follow big mouth Obama remember, Canadians
too have to pay big time. Williams, a premier with means uses the US
for surgery as his own province and country is clearly inferior. Then
this... the truth...

Government health care sucks! And try to find a basic family physician
where I live, freaking near impossible.

For Obama and democrats, it is about the revenue stream. They want the
health care money in government pockets, then dumb down the services and
government profits. A sneaky way to make you more dependant on
government and tax you more.

Don't let Obama's watered down BS fool you, make sure November 2010
counts and get rid of corrupt congressional idiots and the corrupted
senators.

The money is better in your pocket spent on a boat employing people and
not government statism and marxism.

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http://www.calgarysun.com/news/canad.../13138731.html

Sick man faces bankruptcy — or death

Cancer patient must pay for drug needed to keep him alive

Kent Pankow lives in Edmonton, in a province and a country that is
trying to either kill him or bankrupt him.

No sense mincing words.

Suffering from brain cancer, Kent Pankow was literally forced to go to
the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. for lifesaving surgery — at a cost
to family and friends of $106,000 — after the health-care system in
Alberta left him hanging in bureaucratic limbo for 16 crucial days, his
tumour meanwhile migrating to an unreachable part of the brain, while it
dithered over his case file, ultimately deciding he was not surgery worthy.

Now, with the Mayo Clinic having done what the Alberta Cancer Board
wouldn’t authorize or even explain, but with the tumour unable to be
totally removed, the province will now not fund the expensive drug,
Avastin, that the Mayo prescribed to keep him alive and keep the
remaining tumour from increasing in size — despite the costs of the drug
being totally funded by the province for other forms of cancer.

Kent Pankow, as it turns out, has the right disease but he has it in the
wrong place.

Had he lung cancer, breast cancer, or colon cancer, then the cost of the
drug — $4,555 per treatment, two times a month — would be totally
covered by Alberta’s version of OHIP.

But he doesn’t.

And so he is not only a victim of brain cancer, he is also a victim of
arbitrary discrimination.

Full disclosure. Kent Pankow, a 40-year-old Red Seal sous chef, is a son
of the man who married the spouse of my late brother. And it was while
vacationing with them at their winter home in Los Cabos, Mexico,
recently that this story began to unfold back in their home province of
Alberta.

But do not think, even for a moment, that this could never happen in
Toronto or other parts of Ontario.

Our supposedly universal federal health care system, the pride of most
Canadians and the political struggle of America, is only as good as the
length of the waiting line and whether you have the right disease at the
right time.

After writing more than 150 letters to everyone from the prime minister
to virtually all health authorities both federal and provincial, and
being ignored in return, Kent Pankow’s wife, Deborah Hurford, decided to
finally go public.

CTV Edmonton did a major feature on the family’s plight on the 6 o’clock
news and, almost before the program ended, Alberta’s health and wellness
minister, Gene Zwozdesky, was on the phone to their home — ensuring
himself some positive press in the followup that aired later that night.

Then, when he heard the Pankows had filed a human rights complaint
against the province, justifiably citing medicare-based discrimination,
Zwozdesky suddenly went mute — stating he could no longer discuss the
matter publicly.

Ten years ago, when first diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme brain
tumour (GBM), Kent Pankow was given five years to live.

After beating it down once, however, with his first surgery having been
performed in Alberta, he spent nearly seven years in remission until the
cancer’s return in 2008.

And he is not prepared to give up.

“He’s a fighter,” says his wife, admitting, however, that the cost of
the drug has been a significant drain on friends and family who have not
only donated large sums of their own money, but have also organized
fundraisers to keep hope alive, including school penny drives.

“When Kent goes for his Avastin IV injection, he sits next to patients
who receive the same drug for free because they have another type of
cancer — like colon cancer,” Hurford says.

“Brain tumour patients deserve the same rights as other cancer patients,
including access to the same lifesaving treatments — and without
additional costs.

“I can’t begin to tell you how frustrated, angry, disgusted and appalled
I am with both the Alberta health system and the individuals within the
system who continue to perpetuate such an archaic and inhumane approach
to the treatment of patients.” she says. “It seems like they are doing
everything in their power to ensure that Kent succumbs to an early and
unnecessary death.”

“The Avastin is working. The size of the remaining tumour has remained
static since October,” she says.

“But how can anyone afford almost $10,000 a month for a drug — even if
it is saving a loved one’s life?”

When Alberta health minister Gene Zwozdesky called the Pankow home on
the night CTV Edmonton aired its story, he purportedly blamed the feds,
namely Health Canada, for deciding what drugs are covered, and for what.

Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, however, in a letter to Deborah
Hurford, wrote that “while Health Canada is responsible for the market
authorization of drug products, the province and territorial governments
are responsible for managing the list of drugs for which public
reimbursement from government drug plans is available.”

This, too, is passing the buck.

What Aglukkaq would not explain to Hurford — citing confidentiality —
was why Avastin received a notice of compliance from Health Canada for
other forms of cancer, but not yet for brain cancer as in the United States.

Nor would she offer any information regarding any application before her
department for the use of Avastin in the treatment of brain tumours.

“Based on Kent’s MRI’s and radiology reports, and analysis by his
surgeon at the Mayo Clinic, Avastin is playing a key role in stabilizing
Kent’s tumour,” says Hurford.

“Without it, Kent’s tumour will grow and he will die.

“So why then,” asks Hurford, “is (everyone) choosing not to help Kent
and other brain tumour patients who are forced to go public with their
private health issues and fundraise for their lifesaving medical treatments?

“Where is the dignity in that?”
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Politicians don't provide anything, the tax payers do.

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Politicians don't provide anything, the tax payers do.