This situation was more complicated then that. The treatment in question was histiotripy. While it might be less invasive than traditional surgery, it isn’t necessarily “better” when dealing with stage 4 cancer that failed to respond to surgery or chemotherapy. It just uses sound waves instead of scalpels.
Realistically, this guy would have died soon regardless of the treatment. It’s unlikely the technician would have been able to identify all the cancer after it’s spread throughout his body. It’s success depends on being able to target the majority of cancer cells, which isn’t easy for Stage 4 cancer.
That’s not even the point. Trying everything possible should be the norm, and it shouldn’t be dictated by some uncaring jackass with a 35th floor office. The entire little point of health insurance is to distribute the cost of those in need amongst all of the input of the whole. If you take enough of that input as profit for the stockholders and executives, there’s less available to do what the insurance is meant to do. They’re legally embezzling the investment of the whole without providing sufficient practical benefit to warrant it.
But even if you made the insurance system completely non-profit, there’s no upper bound on how much you can spend on each individual. You’d still run into cases where you have to distribute a limited number of resources.
This situation was more complicated then that. The treatment in question was histiotripy. While it might be less invasive than traditional surgery, it isn’t necessarily “better” when dealing with stage 4 cancer that failed to respond to surgery or chemotherapy. It just uses sound waves instead of scalpels.
Realistically, this guy would have died soon regardless of the treatment. It’s unlikely the technician would have been able to identify all the cancer after it’s spread throughout his body. It’s success depends on being able to target the majority of cancer cells, which isn’t easy for Stage 4 cancer.
Does “not easy” make a treatment not medically necessary then?
I know you think you’re being pragmatic but it’s really just coming off as depraved.
That’s not even the point. Trying everything possible should be the norm, and it shouldn’t be dictated by some uncaring jackass with a 35th floor office. The entire little point of health insurance is to distribute the cost of those in need amongst all of the input of the whole. If you take enough of that input as profit for the stockholders and executives, there’s less available to do what the insurance is meant to do. They’re legally embezzling the investment of the whole without providing sufficient practical benefit to warrant it.
But even if you made the insurance system completely non-profit, there’s no upper bound on how much you can spend on each individual. You’d still run into cases where you have to distribute a limited number of resources.
Let’s cross that bridge once we get there
Most of the world can pull it off. Why not the US?
Fuckin’ A.