In the spring of 1998, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
I am alive today because of my family, my faith and the freedom that the American health care system provides.
I have no doubt that I am a survivor today because I, along with my doctors and my family, was in charge of my own health care decisions.
That would all change under the health care plan pushed by the Democrats. A patient will be viewed less as a person and more as a burden.
Too many men and women in this country know what it feels like to hear that you have cancer. Sitting in a doctor’s office, and receiving that news, is terrifying.
Now imagine that following the diagnosis you were forced to consult a government bureaucrat for permission to begin the fight of your life. That’s what the Democrats’ health plan could mean for millions of Americans.
Buried in the House Democrats’ health care legislation are billions of dollars for “Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER).”
If you want to actually read the bill, you can find this provision beginning on page 501 of H.R. 3200, the House Democrats’ health care legislation.
Under the government sponsored CER mandated in the House bill, researchers will compare treatment options for a host of diseases and develop a database to guide doctors’ decisions.
That sounds harmless. Unfortunately, this could lead to limiting or denying care based on age or disability of patients.
In response, Republican members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee offered multiple amendments to prohibit the rationing of health care. On those committee votes, the Democrats showed their real intent by voting down every amendment and leaving those provisions in the bill.
This intrusion of a federal bureaucrat into the relationship between a doctor and a patient is not change we can believe in.
Tom Daschle, President Obama’s first choice to lead the health care reform effort, recently published a book on health care reform.
Daschle wrote that the goal of health care reform should be to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they’re driving up costs. He praised Europeans for being more willing to accept “hopeless diagnoses” and “forego experimental treatments.”
Europeans in search of medical care today are reaping what the Democrats would sow. Cancer survival rates among women in the United States are higher than any nation in Europe. The survival rate here is 12% higher than in England.
Under the proposals that Mr. Daschle inspired, and that President Obama and Congressional Democrats are now pushing on the American public, I would have been like too many European women – just another “hopeless diagnosis.”
I am alive today because the treatment I received was on the cutting edge of technology. Under the Democrats’ plan, my treatments would not have been available to me and my family.
That is the real toll of rationed care. Less money would be spent on treatments leading to fewer mothers, daughters and sisters who survive their cancer.
There is a better way forward than that laid out by the Democrats. We can go after the waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare that costs taxpayers billions every year.
We can implement comprehensive tort reform to reduce costly, unnecessary defensive medicine practiced by doctors to protect themselves from overzealous trial attorneys.
We can recognize that much of our health care system treats conditions and diseases after they have been diagnosed. So we need to focus on preventive care and promote healthier lifestyles.
We can make health coverage more affordable by allowing small businesses to pool together across state lines to negotiate lower premiums for their employees.
Republicans want to make smart reforms that would make our health care system even better, and make it more accessible for all of our citizens. Democrats in Congress simply want more control – over your health care decisions and over one-sixth of the American economy.
This debate should not be about money alone. The real problem with the Democrats’ plan is not that it would cover too few. It is the fact that millions of Americans would lose the ability to choose their doctor and choose the treatments that best fit them.
The real problem with the Democrats’ plan is that it would endanger too many lives.
I am alive today because of my family, my faith and the American health care system. The American health care system creates survivors.
I should know. I am one of them.
******
Jan Larimer is Co-Chairman of the Republican National Committee.
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Thank you so much Mrs. Larimer for sharing your story. The American people HAVE to step up and stop OBAMACARE.
It is unfortunate that for too long the American people have chosen to be apathetic about the liberal agenda for all of us.
Mrs. Larimer, I was born in Ecuador S.A. and came to this country as a little girl. I came in legally and this country accepted me with open arms. Your story touches me and my country the United State of America will take care of us all if we help ourselves, if we work and earn a living, if we pray to our God, if we honor family, home, nd most important today, our country. We are not just losing healthcare we are losing our country, our liberties and our pursuit of happines. God help us all in the coming years. I pray that we stay united and fight a good war, we cannot stand by and watch our country collapse in front of our eyes. Healthcare will be first major take over and then our liberties and our freedoms.
Again, Mrs. Larimer, thank you for sharing and permitting me to also share.
I am reading this document and have printed 1000 plus pages. It is a very scary read.
One thing that I do not hear being said with all the change that is taking place is that thousands if not millions of Americans have given their lives for our freedom which includes the freedom of choice. People come to the USA to have choices, many come from Canada every weekend to get health care that they cannot receive in a timely mannor at home.
This bill allows for choices to be determined by the Commissioner, but does not say who that will be only that the position in an appointed one. This is not freedom of choice.
Hey Peggy— not to scare you further but you should keep reading! Also if you habe an attorney friend that deals in constitutional law have him read it n join here! Once the bill goes thru…the Constitution will be thrown out. Mandat-ing everyone buy insurance is illegal n unconstitutional so with it they can do anything they want.so U see it is not about healthcare it is about power n total control! We R just pawns in the scheme of things! This is were the cost savings comes in…There is a section in Medicare When a person is of medicare age n applies for their social security they will be required to every 5 yrs be sent to a ceneter to discuss your end of life planning and or assisted death! Medicaid,special needs,VA, medigap anyone who does not pay will have next to no benefits as they do not cont-ribute. Mandantory sterilizations and federally funded abortions, illegals pay for nothing..it goes on n on. Thart is why they can’t take a part out or change anything or let republicals see it…. Every republican must be told. The president needs to be point blank asked..someone has to do it as pelosi is going to run thru n then we r doomed!
Thank you for sharing your story & your thoughts. I am for healthcare reform, but you do bring up important points. The most important item to me is to not restrict medical advancement; inovative medicine & treatment. I don’t mind paying for that. I do mind the the high cost of lawsuits/trials, fraud, and waste! By the way, that 1200 page bill is a very difficult read & coming from an administration that wants transparency & easily read disclosures available to consumers in all other industries that a consumer does business!
Thank you for sharing your struggle and success when fighting breast cancer. Women of this nation must speak out so that out grandchildren can have the same results. NO TO OBAMACARE!!
Jan, glad that you are a survivor. Also glad that you had wonderful insurance when the dreaded “C” attacked you.
And you are right, “This debate should not be about money alone.” But as a mother of a child stricken with the dreaded “C”, and insured, it didn’t take long for my loving family to learn what wasn’t covered. And choices had to be made.
Our nation’s for-profit insurance industry already RATIONS health care. You either have the money to afford the copays/deductible/not-covered expenses, or you don’t. And if you don’t, you do not have access to the necessary prescriptions and/or treatment/ hospitalization.
Congrats for evidently being employed by a company that was able to afford to cover all of your needs. And I’m sure, your family’s wealth. My child wasn’t quite as lucky to have parents employed by corporations that covered all of her treatments, drugs and care. She was loved more than any other child on this planet, but just not lucky enough to avoid the RATIONING of care in this great country.
You said it: “Under the government sponsored CER mandated in the House bill, researchers will compare treatment options for a host of diseases and develop a database to guide doctors’ decisions.
That sounds harmless. Unfortunately, this could lead to limiting or denying care based on age or disability of patients.”
The key word is COULD lead to controlling issues that stymie free and honest and timely and effective care. COULD.
We need all sorts of research, and the results must be added to the universal databanks for reference. Data, data data is the way we win …
HOWEVER, at every step we must be vigilant to see that the data collected and shared is GOOD DATA – not merely skewed logics translated into data.
This issue of creating and perveting information is KEY to almost every level of modern life – including the fast-forward hustle in Obamacare.
It’s not that I am Republican, but that my work has been always health-related since girlhood – lots of technology, too.
Unless we remain ACTIVELY interested, we will get what Man has always gotten, when they leave it to others and let power blocks just have their way.
It is possible to prove that red is white and up is down, using convincing logical paths, and the same is true of tech and scientific data. Hitler convinced many, many people that his logics were true enough to follow.
But most of the world did not know of him, till thousands had already died.
Today that is not true: we have instand media and lots of paths to interact and ’save the day’.
I do hope that wonderful people like Mrs. Larimer will continue to help us to be informed of things BEFORE they do harm to all of us.
My daughter is ACS and I use my art to help such causes – thru donations of my art and inspiration – it is the part of it that I can do right now – and notes like this one.
Thank you, Mrs. Larimer and all those in multi-media who help us with their part, too !
elle fagan
My husband has multiple myeloma, it was diagnosed last year when I noticed he was looking pale and had alot of pains, all over. He finally fractured his back lifting a big barn beam. Within 1 month of fracturing his back, he was unable to walk, I was lifting him from a bed to a wheel chair. He started on a medication given intraveneously called Valcade. 1 in 3 people respond well to Valcade. He was one. But what if he needed a bone marrow (adult stem cell) transplant? What if it took longer to start treatment? What if he would have been older? What if a local or distant panel denied him treatment options? Not everyone responds the same to treatment. To any treatment. I have discovered this as a RN practicing 29 years. DENIAL OF TREATMENT OPTIONS IS A GREAT CONCERN TO ME. I do not believe that Politicians understand just how complicated treating people for disease can be. They just want to pay back those who are able bodied at the risk of the disabled.
Thanks!
FLifeforce@aol.com
Your argument only applies to those who HAVE. What about the HAVE NOTS? I can see why those who are covered with a reliable insurance policy would not want to change what works. What about those who have been shafted by insurance companies? My sister worked for 40 years and paid for insurance for all of those years. However,when she was diagnosed with cancer, because she has history with Lupus, her insurance dropped her leaving her to face this horrible disease without health insurance. Is health care the issue or is it fat and greedy insurance companies that have no sense of morality? Are we attacking the right foe?
My Mother died of Breast Cancer, because it wasn’t caught in timr therefore, I am in a high risk group, so are my daughter and granddaughter. I do not want them to worry like I do everytime I go to have a mammogram.
I also am a survior of Ovarian Cancer which would not have been treated as quickly as it was if we have government run insurance. My Doctors quickly sent me to a specialst and they operated on me within a week. I did not have to take hormones or radiatin, because they got it all the first time. I was at home within two days.
Just know that i am with you all the way and we cant let this pass. My sister hi-jacked my list of email address by using the window i had sent her about a tribute for 9-11. She is a very liberal dem. and she sent a video from moveon.org to everyone in my list so they would see it. I have my son’s commanding officers e-mail due to his being deployed in AFG. right now. She sent several e-mails to her, my son’s soldiers email, they are fighting a war right now she didnt need to do that. She is so smug and I am very upset to be used this way. Democrats will do anything to be heard. So must we. The video of course made everyone cry but said nothing about the facts, like Obama never does. It was a play on emotions to unsuspecting friends and associates of mine, to get the video heard. Shame on her and all Democrats who are so sneaky.
I am so happy for you….
Faith is wonderful.
With Love,
Stacy
Thank you for sharing. There are many women who share your experiences but not the insight of the political repercussions being bandied about. After Obama’s speech tonight, I am sickened of even listening to his rhetoric. God help us all if this administration doesn’t get an eye opening experience soon.