After budget cuts, Indiana baby denied life-saving treatment

news source

Six-month-old Seth Petreikis suffers from complete DiGeorge syndrome, which keeps him from developing a thymus, an infection-fighting glandular organ. He needs a transplant that's been pioneered by a specialist at Duke University in North Carolina. But the procedure costs $500,000, and the state's Family Social Services Administration won't pay for it under the state's Medicaid, reports the Northwest Indiana Times. It claims that the treatment is "experimental" -- even though 58 of 60 children to receive it have survived.

97% success rate on the treatment, and it is still considered experimental. Wanted to share this with everyone here. I dont know Indiana state policy, but shouldnt the policy be to save the life of the childe, especially when there is only a 3% chance of failure in the procedure?

This kind of news saddens me, and is reminiscent of what I have heard about other medical treatments when it is left up to the state to make the decision. Could this be what is in store for others when faced with socialized treatment?



There has been a change in situation and a private insuarnce company has decided to pay for the medical costs that the state of Indiana has previously denied.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

why the hell would any procedure cost $500,000. these F#ING doctors need a procedure all right

I live in Indiana and am disabled - I had Medicaid when I lived in Kentucky and I have applied here but I know the budget will not allow me to have it. I can't afford a physican - I go to a neighborhood health clinic and pay on a sliding fee - its difficult to get appointments as they are packed - mostly with children and the elderly. Its getting worse all the time here. As with the case of the child needing a transplant perhaps another state would be willing to pay for the transplant from donated money, or an charity organization. However I doubt Indiana would be willing to put them on the right path to find out. Very sad situation.

Originally posted by aliengenes
why the hell would any procedure cost $500,000. these F#ING doctors need a procedure all right

I second that motion. The problem isn't short budgets, it's crazy insurance schemes and monopoly prices. The faster we can weed out government, the faster health care costs will go down.

reply to post by crazydaisy


I hope for the best for you and that things improve. I wasnt sure if Indiana had a history of similar behavior when it comes to social services. Apparently it does.

Originally posted by aliengenes
why the hell would any procedure cost $500,000. these F#ING doctors need a procedure all right

Capitolism at its finest! Money is more important than lives. What ever happened to becoming a doctor because you ginually wanted to help people? This is why we need salary caps.

MOTF!

reply to post by MessOnTheFED!


Kinda makes me think about the Denzel Washington movie John Q.
I must say if I was ever in the same situation I can not honestly say that I wouldnt do the same thing.
At the end of the day, human life should trump the cost of any procedure.

97% success rate on the treatment, and it is still considered experimental.

Even if it was 1% success rate, a baby deserves it.

To those who didn't want to help that baby, please let me quote :

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness".

Romans 1:18-32 (King James Version)

Thank God I live in Canada! I mean NO disrespect to my US buddies, and my ATS buds.... but Canada would never do this to a person living here! There are many living here that shouldn't be, but we treat them.

I'm going to get flamed for this, but I'm honest! The illegals should not get the med treatment, they should be deported. Instead, they are welcomed..... I Have So Many gripes about that!

How is my tax money paying for this? I'm a legal resident, work my ass off.... ... This pisses me Off!!

reply to post by TortoiseKweek


I might have to reconsider my opinion of Canadian health care.
I suspected it to be very much the same as many state run social plans.
Then again Ive never been sick in Canada, or even in Canada for that matter.
Perhaps because my only opinion was formed from a story similar to this one.
Good to know that perhaps my ideas were off base.

That is absolutely deplorable
What have we come to? No one should ever be denied life-saving care! Yes, the costs do tally up, but does a life not have more worth than this? Medical charity is dead...

Despite all the adverse media hype about the UK's NHS got to say this would never happen.

This paragraph in the link made my blood curl

We last wrote about Indiana's FSSA after some of its staffers told parents to drop off their developmentally disabled children at homeless shelters.

Health care should be a right ironically Cuba has one of the best health care systems in the world, closely followed by the French.

Originally posted by dizzylizzy

We last wrote about Indiana's FSSA after some of its staffers told parents to drop off their developmentally disabled children at homeless shelters.

I felt the same way when I read that.
If this was just a pssing incident, as deplorable as it may be I would have to think perhaps there was more to the story. After seeing that quote, it made me think that perhaps Indiana;s public health care system is less than desirable to say the least.

reply to post by youdidntseeme


Money makes the world go round, any company's primary focus is to earn a profit, not to give hand outs. I know how cold that comes off but that's the way the World is my friend, though I may not personally agree with this, it's just how things work.

In many areas of the world, they just have another baby and hope the next one turns out more healthy. A perfect world is not a right. Sure it's sad, but expecting help is also selfish. If you don't want to spend 500,000 on some medical procedure then do the operation yourself. I doubt there are many transplant fodder for babies either. How much is this bodypart cost outside the operation?

this is solely about a surgeon who's developed a procedure, that he has a limited clientele, that he desires to monopolize on. it takes him a couple hours to do the operation, then he can go back to the golf course with his mega profit. he probably make over 10 million a year and the hospital only gets a few hundred thousand.

this at most should only cost $30,000. its just filthy greed and taking advantage of the ill.

it makes me sick and i want to operate on the operator

reply to post by aliengenes


Ive known doctors through the years that have gone broke themselves because they thought that the treatment of the sick was more important than the big paychecks that they could demand and eventually ended up treating more than half of his their patients for free.

And then you know what they did when they went broke? Continued treating patients.

Being from Indiana myself this does not surprise me one bit ! Mitch Daniels is the biggest POS I've ever seen as governor.The first thing he did when he took office was tear up the union contract with all the state workers.Also now that our retarded voters have put a majority of republicans back in the statehouse he want to cut unemployment benefits by half! If this man runs for president be afraid be very afraid!!

Originally posted by Arcane Demesne

Originally posted by aliengenes
why the hell would any procedure cost $500,000. these F#ING doctors need a procedure all right

I second that motion. The problem isn't short budgets, it's crazy insurance schemes and monopoly prices. The faster we can weed out government, the faster health care costs will go down.

Uhh....how do you figure that? Did the government decide what this operation was supposed to cost? If not, who did? THAT person is the one that should be held personally liable for this.

More likely, the doctor decided his own payrate, figuring medicare would just pay him whatever. Its like winning the lottery every day if they pay, and you lose nothing if they dont, because hey, you are already a rich doctor.

And on top of that, he will get to keep his Bush tax cuts. Awesome, way to go America.

Originally posted by aliengenes
why the hell would any procedure cost $500,000. these F#ING doctors need a procedure all right

Yeah, and that's in the experimental phase at a university, wait until it's no longer experimental and at a for profit hospital, wait and see how much it will cost.