Of course, early and proper treatment could prevent the expense of transplants for many Hepatitis C patients, but since poor citizens are discarded so readily by this legislature, we are no doubt in for one heck of a fight as long as these lawmakers remain in power.
Happy Hepatitis Awareness Month, friends.
Hang in there.
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Some budget cuts are death sentences
One of the strongest arguments for immigration reform is that Americans must take care of Americans first.So why aren't we doing it?
Some of the best doctors in Arizona told state legislators that if they cut transplant services from the AHCCCS budget, hard-working Arizonans will die.
The legislators cut the services.
The legislators cut the services.
The doctors were from University Medical Center, Banner Good Samaritan and the Mayo Clinic.
They laid out their case in coldly understandable terms, writing, for example:
"As of 19 April 2010, there are 51 AHCCCS patients on the liver transplant
wait list with Hepatitis C. Of those patients waiting, approximately 17 of those patients will die this year if transplantation is not a covered service. Based on the current average reimbursement rate for transplantation ($149,670), the estimated cost savings to AHCCCS will be $2,544,390."
That is the short-term saving.
It is difficult to determine the long-term cost to the state of caring for patients who slowly wither away. It could take years.
The doctors ran to same numbers for heart-transplant patients, lung-transplant patients, pancreas-transplant patients.
The legislators cut the services.
And Gov. Jan Brewer signed the bill into law, eliminating AHCCCS coverage for the operations.
"I can't work anymore and we ran out of coverage a while back," he told me. "It's terrible needing help. It's not what I wanted. But when you run out of money, what can you do? If I don't get a transplant, I guess the state won't have to pay for me or worry about me until I walk into an emergency room close to dying. They can't turn me away then."
People like Charlie Thomas, a transplant social worker, have been dealing with the threat of these cuts for years, always managing to stave them off. Until this time.
This time, legislators needed a quick fix.
"The people who benefit from these transplant services are people who were working, paying taxes, being good citizens and then got sick and lost everything. They're us," Thomas told me.
Still, the services were cut.
The transplant physicians and hospitals are hoping they'll have a second chance to make their case before the new rules go into effect in July. Before people die who could otherwise be saved. They believe they have the scientific data and the economics on their side.
One of those hoping to get the Legislature to reconsider is Leo Corbett, a former state senator and one-time Republican candidate for governor who knows what it means to make tough budget decisions. He's also a heart-transplant recipient.
"I'm not sure that legislators got all the information they needed to make an informed decision," he told me. "It seemed to have been in the hands of the bean counters rather than the policy makers. I believe this can be resolved in a fiscally sound manner that still serves the need of these patients. I hope so, anyway. I believe, like a lot of people, that a society or a state is judged by how it treats its poor people. For most of these folks, the illness took all they had."
Reach Montini at 602-444-8978 or ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.
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