Marathon Pundit: British ObamaCare update: English get cancer drugs, Scots don't

Thursday, September 30, 2010

British ObamaCare update: English get cancer drugs, Scots don't

"Postcode lottery" is a British term to describe the capricious distribution of resources, such as medicine, to some parts of the UK, but not others. It's stoic form of rationing.

It can happen here. If ObamaCare survives the drive to repeal it, private insurers will either driven out of business or become government-controlled quasi-utilities. Government does not perform tasks effeciently or fairly, so a ZIP Code lottery could emerge. Someone who lives in Chicago's 60640 ZIP Code might get receive a life-saving cancer drug, while someone else in 60641 might not.

Or a Wisconsin resident will, but an Illinoisan won't.

Far-fetched? When Britain's National Health Service launched 60 years ago, not even its harshest opponents ever dreamed of a postcode lottery.

From The Scotsman:

Cancer patients in Scotland will miss out on drugs which are now available to sufferers in England through a new treatment fund, campaigners have warned.

The Rarer Cancers Foundation (RCF) said 18 treatments had been rejected for use on the NHS in Scotland, many used in less common diseases such as kidney and bone cancers.

But a new cancer drugs fund being launched in England today should mean that more patients south of the border will receive therapies which have also been rejected by watchdogs there.

The RCF has written to First Minister Alex Salmond calling for action to address the "worrying inequality" now in danger of emerging.