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Let’s Keep Cancer Off The Campaign Trail
file under Fred Malek, John McCain, cancer - Fred Malek @ 5:02 pmOne of my proudest activities is my work on behalf of cancer research. My wife Marlene is President of Friends of Cancer Research, where I am a contributor, and she is on the board of, and I am a contributor to, the MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center Leadership Council.
Finding a cure for cancer is a vitally important mission for this country. Supporting that mission should unite everyone – and should be off-limits from the political and partisan battlefield.
That’s why I was more than a bit concerned to see Elizabeth Edwards – herself a heroic cancer survivor and inspiration for us all – bring cancer into the presidential race.
Here’s what I read on Jake Tapper’s blog at ABC News:
Speaking to the Association of Health Care Journalists on Saturday, Elizabeth Edwards said that she and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have something in common in addition to being cancer survivors: “Neither one of us would be covered by his health policy.”
Edwards — the wife of former presidential candidate and Sen. John Edwards, D-NC — said that insurance companies, under McCain’s proposal, “wouldn’t have to cover preexisting conditions like melanoma and breast cancer.”
Dr. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, senior policy advisor to McCain, told the Los Angeles Times that, in the words of the Times, “Edwards’ comments were disappointing and that they revealed she did not understand the comprehensive nature of the senator’s proposal.”
Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, said McCain’s policy would harness “the power of competition to produce greater coverage for Americans.”
I give Mrs. Edwards all the benefit of the doubt in the world on this one, that she really has our best interests at heart by introducing John McCain – who is Honorary Co-chairman, Advisory Board of Directors of the Arizona Cancer Research Foundation — into the political conversation.
I just hope that it doesn’t become a common occurrence on the campaign trail. The cancer conversation is best left to the experts, researchers, and doctors.
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:02 pm
ok. but you didn’t respond to the criticism about coverage
Its good to know you hate cancer. I think its safe to say everybody does. But what’s it matter if you volunteer for an organization looking to cure or treat cancer if those research benefits can’t get to the people who need them because they have cancer and won’t be covered under mccain’s “plan”-if you want to call it that.
all you did was try to change the subject to elizabeth edwards.
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Well, she is not the one playing politics with cancer, you are by deliberately avoiding the entire point of what Ms Edwards is talking about.
She is using her and Senator McCain’s physical conditions to raise a point about pre-existing condition clauses. It could just as easily be concerning diabetes, hypertension, cardiac conditions or any number of other medical conditions that fall into that category.
By trying to deflect this into a discussion of cancer you are bringing it into the political sphere.
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:29 pm
But one thing that people with cancer need to know if, “will I be covered?” That’s a legitimate issue in the presidential race, more than if somebody volunteers to serve on a board of directors.
“Can people who need health care get it?” is a really, really important issue in the campaign. Elizabeth Edwards is right to raise that issue.
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Ok. Im not sure Elizabeth Edward’ was “politicizing” cancer. What she was doing is raising the legitimate issue of whether people with cancer will be able to receive insurance assistance for their conditions. Unfortunately for you and your favored candidate, she (nor he) won’t. The politics of the issue exist, because politicians refuse to confront he nature of health care within our country, and spend more energy assisting insurance companies. The volunteer work is great! Keep it up. But this is a completely fair game issue to raise. We have people we are supposed to vote for. One issue I will be making my decision on is health care coverage and the move towards universal care.
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Hello Mr. Malek,
First of all, thanks for all that you and your wife have done to advance our search for remedies and cures for cancer. Mr. McCain is to be lauded also for his contributions.
I am an advocate myself for stem cell research. Our aim, like yours, is to relieve suffering and extend human life.
I do tend to agree with the comments made so far to your posting. We don’t want to play politics with illness. At the same time, there are as you know public policy decisions that bear quite directly on research efforts and on the matter of breadth of health care coverage to Americans.
It seems to me that our nation, because it spends trillions of dollars on military expenditure, necessarily comes up short when it comes to meeting American’s health care needs. And where does that expenditure go? Into a war that has hardly advanced (and may even have damaged) the cause of a secure, terror-free world.
Anyway, that’s the way it seems to me. I’ll be that you see things somewhat differently. Still, of course I appreciate the humane values you stand for.
Raymond Barglow
Berkeley California
April 4th, 2008 at 11:47 am
The American Cancer Society is rolling a new campaign that highlights the peril that individuals and families face when cancer strikes them. How will they pay for it and what will the economic cost be to them? Will they have to have their life’s savings wiped out? Will they have to become destitute?
A recent survey of medical doctors shows that a majority now favor society wide health coverage versus the twenty year experiment in private health care. Why do doctors have to spend over twenty percent of their time fighting to be paid by health insurance companies?
It is time for presidential contenders face the political dimension to the affects that cancer has on patients.
April 8th, 2008 at 8:38 am
[...] This point was quite relevant to me last week when I posted on this blog my thoughts about Elizabeth Edwards and cancer research. [...]