Comments on: Let’s Keep Cancer Off The Campaign Trail

By: Fred Malek Blog » Blog Archive » The Cancer Discussion Continued

Fred Malek Blog » Blog Archive » The Cancer Discussion Continued — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 13:38:47 +0000

[...] This point was quite relevant to me last week when I posted on this blog my thoughts about Elizabeth Edwards and cancer research. [...]

By: Ken

Ken — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:47:45 +0000

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.

By: Raymond Barglow

Raymond Barglow — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 03:45:40 +0000

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

By: PP

PP — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:16:22 +0000

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.

By: SDM

SDM — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:29:25 +0000

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.

By: john m

john m — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:03:05 +0000

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.

By: freaktown

freaktown — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:02:19 +0000

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.