Kaiser’s Death Panel
A worrisome abdominal pain drove Jalal Afshar to seek treatment last year at healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente…Kaiser granted his request to see a specialist in Arkansas. But it ultimately declined to pay for his treatment there. By June, Afshar said, Kaiser was arranging for hospice care so that he could die at home. Afshar, 58, refused to accept that. Despite Kaiser’s stance, he went back to Arkansas for six months of stem-cell transplants, chemotherapy and other treatments that he says saved his life. Now he owes $2 million for his care and is suing the company in state court for breach of contract and unfair business practices.
Source: LA Times.
I hope he wins his case. Tired of these big medical giants doing the minimum to save people’s lives. Let’s put greed and politics aside for once when dealing with a person’s life.
At some point society will have to deal with how patients with rare condition should expect from other members of society (i.e. insurers, Medicaid, Medicare and employer plans). We all cannot expect to receive $2 million in lifetime care unless we all are willing to forfeit $2 million worth of lifetime earnings.
He better be worth that cool $2 million. It’s not fair to us or his family to have to pay for that.
Proponents of government controlled healthcare use these types of examples of $2 mil claims to declare healthcare must be managed, overseen, distributed from the top down as the most “fair” method to allocate scarce resources.
The fact is, everyone does NOT expect, demand or even seek expensive or extraordinary measures for medical treatment to prolong life. I would venture to say the majority of patients are passive recipients and par takers in their own medical care– especially medical care rendered for less common diagnoses. The “Lorenzo’s Oil” folks are perhaps as rare as the diagnoses.
Therefore, there is no need to artificially suppress/ration medical care if we allow people to make independent and autonomous decision about their own medical treatment utilizing whatever resources they deem necessary AND get the government boot off the neck of our healthcare system.
What some of the comments here do not understand is that there is a grave dysfunction within the determinants that dictate ridiculously high medical care prices. If a person has cancer and wants to do all necessary to save his/her life, it is natural that care and treatment will be lengthy. For cases like these — out of the control of the person — costs need to be re-adjusted. You can’t expect a person to pay in the millions. I don’t agree with many on here that the market fixes health care costs. People’s health in dire circumstances go beyond the intelligence of “the market.”
Wow, this is yet another example why health care is so difficult to solve. Cost containment, in a sense, means denying care. Surely Kaiser chose hospice care because it was less expensive to the procedure.
This goes to show how people value life differently. To Kaiser, based on objective analysis, they thought the most cost effective path would be hospice. However, to the individual, living his life, no matter the situation, is priceless, and so, he put himself through the process and is now 2 million in debt.
This is why we shouldn’t let some out side governing body dictate how we get our care, I feel like that conversion is between the doctor and the patient!
This is such a terrible story, I don’t even know how to form an opinion on this!
Death panels, I think what we need first is a life panel, someone needs to replace Oprah since her retirement!
I don’t think they are calloused. Yes, the cost of medicine is inflated. It’s inflated by the massive influx of government dollars (same with higher education). However, unless people have millions and millions of dollars gathering dust in a safe, these people can’t afford the “I’ll pay anything to save my life!” approach to terminal illness we see in the movies. Doctors know the futility of life more than most. In this article, http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2013/03/06/in-the-magazine/health-in-the-magazine/how-doctors-die.html , the author discusses how doctors know how much their life is worth. If I was in the same situation as this man, I would settle my accounts, spend time with my family, and die in peace. This is a blessing that most do not experience. Most people have no idea when they will die – maybe today, tomorrow, next year, next century. Knowing with certainty how much time you have on the earth is worth $2 million all by itself. Save you money and make sure that your family is cared for.
I’ll never understand why common sense doesn’t over rule administrative policies more often.
Great post! Those that are heartless will lose in the end…
GO Jalal Afshar!
This is not an unknown disease. Southern California has some of the best research and teaching hospitals in the world, why on earth did this guy come to the conclusion that the only place he could get good treatment was Arkansas?
@Gabriel- Your comment reflects the point I’m making in my comment above. While you would choose to relinquish control and succumb, others will choose differently based upon their own circumstances, religious/cultural beliefs, motivation, family support, fears, desires, [and dare I say- financial issues] etc. — just as in all other areas of life where to each his own is mostly understood, supported and respected as long as law abiding.
There will always be hard cases, especially where there are cutting-edge treatments and people willing to try them. However, people benefiting from them can’t necessarily expect someone else to pay for them. Price is a natural rationing system. If you wish, you can live your life amassing huge amounts of money in order to stave off death for a while at the end, but most people are more philosophical. However, I think it’s important to note that, since he had a grievance against Kaiser, he could take his case to an independent court of law. Can you imagine if a government panel had said No to further care–there would be no hospital that could take him and he would have to take his case to, what, an administrative law judge who works for the government?
This is a complex issue and I am glad it is being raised in this blog.
I always ask the same few questions when I read about cases like this:
1. The patient does not really owe $2 million to anyone. Certainly the providers want to collect $2 million, and pretending that the patient owes them might encourage more payment. What, are they going to make him wash dishes for 65 years at $30,000 a year if he does not pay?
2. I would demand to see the bills that come to $2 million.
How many days in the hospital? How many grotesquely over priced drugs? how many overcharges for individual chemotherapy treatments?
We should pay all oncologists by the hour. If a treatment takes 3 hours, pay them
$600 at $200 an hour. Not $5000!!!!!
3. We should recognize that the reluctance to spend $2 million on one life is not irrational or backwards.
There is such a thing as the greatest good for the greatest number.
Getting one person from age 58 to age 60 may not be worth it. Especially if $2 million can provide hundreds of seniors with home nursing visits, or hundreds of new mothers with pre natal care. That is many hundreds!
Bob Hertz, The Health Care Crusade