The American Cancer Society (ACS) has been running a More Birthdays campaign for a while. Unless you’ve lived in a hole, you’ve probably seen the TV commercials. Don’t get me started on why they would waste resources on a TV campaign instead of research, but they are. However, by treating and preventing cancer earlier, they are helping live longer lives – and celebrate more birthdays.
But more birthdays means longer lives – and more money spent on healthcare.
The ACS campaign on more birthdays is directly in conflict with the current policies of the Obama Administration. We have seen the White House put pressure on CMS to decline coverage of important cancer treatments and detection methods, such as virtual colonoscopy. These decisions are not taken because things like virtual colonoscopy are unsafe or ineffective. In fact the opposite is true – the sole reason the White House has become involved is because it will help colon cancer patients live longer.
This is a dangerous precedent in the United States – healthcare decisions made against the best interest of the patients and against the best medical evidence and solely on the basis of care rationing to keep costs down.
More Birthdays from the ACS is a strong statement in favor of human life. More Birthdays is about innovation – diagnosis and treatment. More Birthdays is about the personal struggle for survival in the face of healthcare system (public and private) that would rather see you dead.
Healthcare reform is about cuts to costs and care rationing. The government’s desire to control costs is in direct conflict with an individual’s desire to live. Whether you get your next birthday shouldn’t be up to a bunch of government administrators.
