How ObamaCare would have killed my son and me
By Ken Falkenstein | Friday, September 16th, 2011 | Policy
It occurred to me tonight that if ObamaCare had become the law of the land 30 or 40 years ago, my son Josh and I would be dead.
ObamaCare was designed to destroy the private sector health insurance industry and force all Americans into a single-payer system run by the federal government. Unless it is repealed or ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, that is precisely what will happen over the next few years. If that happens, millions of people who otherwise could be saved from life-threatening illnesses and injuries will die.
We all know the arguments about how inefficient socialized medicine systems are, how people are forced to wait for months on end to get life-saving treatment, how people are left to die in hospital hallways, how death panels ration health care, how those with the means to do so come to the United States to get the treatment that they cannot get in their own countries. We all know that if the Democrats succeed in forcing us into such a system, countless people will die from the system’s inherent inefficiencies. This article is not going to rehash these obvious points.
What no one is talking about, though, is that millions of additional people will die from medical conditions that would have been cured if innovation had not been stifled by that system. Simply put, countries that have the kind of socialized medicine systems that Obama and almost all of the Democrats in Congress are trying to force us into do not innovate because they have no incentive to do so. When was the last time you heard of a major life-saving medical innovation coming out of England or Canada?
It is the United States that has produced almost all of the great medical innovations of the past several decades. If America dismantles its best-in-the-world health care system in favor of the single-payer system sought by Obama and his Democrats, then there will be no country left on the planet to whom the world can look to develop the treatments and cures to humanities’ most dangerous and intractable medical conditions.
Which brings me back to my original statement: If ObamaCare had become the law of the land 30 or 40 years ago, my son Josh and I would be dead:
In 1993, I was diagnosed with hypercholesterolemia – Irrespective of my diet and level of exercise, my body produces too much “bad” cholesterol. Over the past two decades, I have been able to keep my cholesterol at healthy levels through the use of statin drugs like Lipitor, Zocor, and Crestor. If leftists like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had succeeded in destroying the private sector pharmaceutical industry 30 or 40 years ago, then these drugs would never have been developed, and I almost certainly would have had a fatal heart attack within the past twenty years.
In 2007, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease. I was told at the time that if I had to have cancer, this was the one to have because it is almost always curable. And indeed, after three months of chemotherapy and a month of radiation therapy, a CT scan showed me to be clean of the offending lymph nodes. But about 50 years earlier, my mother went to high school with a teenaged boy who contracted and died from Hodgkins Disease. There was no cure at that time, but in the past 30 years, a cure was developed that is now effective about 99% of the time and that saved my life. If leftists like Barack Obama and today’s Democrats had succeeded in socializing the medical system and stifling innovation 30 or 40 years ago, I would be dead from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma today.
My son Joshua and his twin brother Dylan were born in April of this year premature at 31 weeks. Josh has Down Syndrome, and he was born with a related heart defect (as well as several other medical problems). The doctors were able to diagnose Josh’s Down Syndrome and heart condition early in the pregnancy, and so we were able to have pediatric cardiologists following him even before he was born. About two months after Josh was born, he needed and underwent a very delicate and complicated heart surgery performed by CHKD’s Dr. Mohammed Mumtaz, one of the finest surgeons and human beings on the face of the Earth. Needless to say, the surgery was successful and saved Josh’s life. If leftists like Barack Obama and today’s Democrats had succeeded in socializing the medical system and stifling innovation 30 or 40 years ago, the medical science and techniques that saved Josh’s life would not have been developed, and he would have died in infancy. (And even if these techniques did exist, it is highly questionable that the government bureaucrats in charge of rationing health care would have approved the expenditure for this expensive and risky procedure for a baby with Down Syndrome.)
After Josh’s successful heart surgery, about a week into his recovery, Josh contracted sepsis, a very serious and often fatal blood infection. The doctors treated the sepsis aggressively and, over the course of about two weeks, managed to defeat it. One of those doctors later told us that Josh had contracted the worst case of sepsis that he had ever seen and that he was amazed that Josh survived. If leftists like Barack Obama and today’s Democrats had succeeded in socializing the medical system and stifling innovation 30 or 40 years ago, the medical science, drugs, and techniques that saved Josh’s life would not have been developed, and again, he would have died in infancy.
The striking thing is that if Josh and/or I had died because no cures had been developed to address our respective medical conditions, no one would have known that such cures could have been developed if the market had been left to work, and so, no one would have held the socialized medical system accountable for these deaths. Likewise, if ObamaCare is allowed to go into effect, we will never know how many people who die in the coming years and decades ahead would have been saved if the market had been left to work and to continue to develop cures to currently fatal medical conditions. These millions of people will be the silent and unappreciated victims of ObamaCare unless ObamaCare is repealed.
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About the author
Ken Falkenstein has been a staffer in the United States Senate and the Virginia House of Delegates. He has managed political campaigns. He was a military intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army in West Germany during the Cold War. He is currently the Vice President of the Down Syndrome Association of Hampton Roads and practices as a civil litigation attorney with the law firm of Poole Mahoney PC in Virginia Beach. His concern for his kids' future is what most informs his writing.
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12 Responses to "How ObamaCare would have killed my son and me"
Ken: a most compelling story and very thoughtful. Fortunately you were able to afford the insurance premiums, hospital bills and other costs. We are not all so fortunate. I am self employed and as such, must bear the full costs of social security and health insurance. Regettably, I am diagnosed with hemochromotosis–a genetic condition that affect far more people than you might imagine. It’s a scary sound name for a condition that can be simply desribed and simply treated: too much iron in the blood, cured by donating a pint of blood a month. What did this cost me? Everything. My health insurance rates went through the roof. When I applied for a different plan, my own health insurance company denied me due to “pre existing conditions.” My only option was to cancel my health insurance, and so, now, I have none. My only resort it to go to the free health clinic. Somehow, I just can’t get my around that, but I do know at the end of the day, that is all I have left as a health care option. All just to donate a pint of blood per month. I am told I cannot do this in Virginia because it is against the law. Why? And in whose universe does this make any sense? My condition is 100% fatal if not treated, yet is so easily treated, but I cannot get treatment. Is this your idea of the world’s most wonderful health care system?
As a pragmatic political science major , I feel so compeled to tell you that you need to actually read “Obamacare” with all this B.S. such as death panels your sounding so insuffient to society. This should be titled ignorant with false information on Healthcare reform. Its funny how you say you and your son would die if socialized healthcare was apart of the law 30yrs ago because theirs that beautiful government run drug regulation system also known as the FDA that aproves any and every drug that is prescribed in the United States. If it wasn’t for there regulations and requirements, the medicine and therapy you received could’ve no WOULD’VE been anything from slashing your wrists to get rid of the bad blood to cure you or even better. . Surgery that only required you to drink a bottle of whisky to be able to withstand the pain oh and even better having a surgical procedure done with unsanitized instruments. .Do yourself and your future a favor and self educate yourself with the history of medicine in this country along with the regulations and high standards that the FDA aka the UNITED STATES GOVERMENT has don’t to protect its citizens.
I’m glad you and your child are alright but what a reach… Way to much to be of any value. Sorry…
Ken,
Thank you for taking the time to write this. It should open some eyes, at least for those who have an honest curiosity and are not hell-bent on a predetermined ideal of what is “best” for everyone.
Bobbi Briggs,
Let me relate a true story from my family. At the age of 88, my very healthy and active mother was diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm. The prognosis was that the aneurysm could burst at any time, triggering a fatal heart attack or stroke. (I had a uncle on my father’s side who had the same condition, but was not diagnosed. He dropped dead on a Christmas Eve walking through a store.) The treatment recommended by her primary care physician was surgery to place a mesh stint. Before she could be scheduled for the surgery, however, her case had to be reviewed and the surgery approved by the hospital tissue committee, the intended surgeon, the stint device manufacturer, and, of course, by Medicare. Does that sound like a Death Panel? It certainly did to me and my siblings and we prayed very hard for those few days (it seemed like weeks) until we received the panel’s decision.
We already have Death Panels. The difference in ObamaCare is at some point the focus of the panel might shift from the quality of life of the patient to reducing health care costs. Think about it. The next patient who needs that stint might be you or someone very close to you. I hope that it works out as well for you as it did for Mom.
Ken, your post reads more like a fairy tale than a post to a policy blog. Frankly, for a person of your obvious intelligence to have written such baloney reveals only one thing to me; that is, politics, and the imperative for conservatives to lose their mind following the republican playbook, has in your case replaced any innate intelligence you once had. If you must politicize this discussion, you must acknowledge that health care reform of like nature was first proposed by republicans to ensure our system remained private insurance based. Second, the leading contender for the republican nomination implemented the same system in Mass.; and third, as pointed out herein, our current system is a disaster for most, providing mediocre service for most, at high cost, inefficiently, and with little cost control. We rank 36th in health among industrialized nations, and we lead the world in heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, high blood pressure, that is, all the illnesses of prosperity. Please, start over again.
Like I said, Ken. “It should open some eyes, at least for those who have an honest curiosity and are not hell-bent on a predetermined ideal of what is “best” for everyone.”
Exhibit A, above.
Dear anonymous HisRoc,
You are being completely upserd in your response and story with your grandmother. Like everyone else in this world. I have plenty of sob stories I could tell about family members of mine and quite a few of them have passed on. I think maybe you should actually look at the current procedures any patient in any hospital must go through in order to receive proper treatment. The reason your grandmother’s approval took so long was the exact reason we need Obamacare. Insurance companies now do everything they can to not have to pay for anything, the require you(your grandma) to go through all those procedures to be basically 110% accurate that she would even need the surgery. Earlier this week I myself had to go through some simple dental work (fillings) the usual stuff and they had to send my insurance company an x-ray as proof that I actually needed it done. Now I know this is slightly different from your story, but it all is in the same category. Now if you look at what you wrote carefully you’d see that all of what you and your family went through with your grandma was well before Obamacare is enacted which by the way is 2014, and depending on whichever state your in, I jus have a funny feeling it must be one of those states trying to repeal “Obamacare” , then it has not taken affect at all in your state. And by the way I highly suggest you actually read the Healthcare reform bill before putting your 2cents in on it. I just love how the ones who know the least, have the most to say.
Bobbi,
You command of the English language, not to mention your reading comprehension skills are, shall we say, “upserd.”
You are a sad case who is not worth engaging. I make it a point of never arguing with an illiterate moron.
In 1993 I had HMO insurance. My youngest son Christian was 17 months old and after 3 doctor visits for extreme bloody diarrhea, I over rode the doctor’s refusal to allow permission for me to take him to CHKD. The HMO insurance company refused to pay for or authorize an emergency room visit. Christian had e-coli that had gone into full HUS. He was in a full coma within hours of taking him to CHKD emergency and was in a coma on total life support for almost 30 days. Total kidney failure, brain damage, many surgeries later, he made a recovery and is still with me, only because I disobeyed the HMO insurance company and the doctor under the guidelines of the HMO insurance company. This has been going on for quite some time that money talks and the rest walks when it comes to insurance companies.
We can’t afford Obama care, but something does need to be done about the greed within the system we do have.
I’m glad I disobeyed the insurance company. I’m glad I still have my son.
Well considering your response to my well thought out with properly informed comments was only trying to attack my character is funny only because you let it be known that my response left you speechless and angry. I appreciate that fact that you let me do that to you.
Sincerly ,
An informed unafraid to hide behind a bogus name Bobbi
Mr. Falkenstein:
You might have been at the beginning of your career or lost your job and health insurance during this economic recession.
I heard the answer in Tampa. Let him die.
Should Josh have died because you were at that point in your life?
Yes, or you could have been unfortunate like Kent Snyder.
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