VP Joe Biden was going to sell his home to afford his son's cancer care until Obama stopped him

[babylonsister]

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/13/1620179/-VP-Joe-Biden-was-going-to-sell-his-home-to-afford-his-son-s-cancer-care-until-Obama-stopped-him?detail=facebook

VP Joe Biden was going to sell his home to afford his son's cancer care—until Obama stopped him
By wagatwe
Friday Jan 13, 2017 · 2:46 PM EST

Closeup of Obama standing next to a smiling Biden.
Health care costs for Biden's son's cancer were so expensive that even the vice president couldn't afford it.


In the debate over health care costs, we often use the average Joe as an example for how necessary laws like the Affordable Care Act are. But in this case, it’s another Joe—the Vice President of the United States of America—who shows us just how ridiculously expensive and inaccessible health care can be.

In an interview this week, Biden talks about his love for his friend Obama. But this isn’t just a story about friendship. The VP shows us just how badly we need to keep the ACA when he shares how Obama supported him while his son was dying of cancer.

The Washington Post reports:

In the interview with CNN, the vice president said he had told Obama over one of their regular private lunches that if his son Beau were forced to step down his position as Delaware's attorney general and lose his income because of the brain cancer that ultimately killed him, the vice president and his wife Jill would have to sell their home to pay for Beau's medical expenses.

He said Obama told him not to do that.

"He said ‘I’ll give you the money. Whatever you need, I’ll give you the money. Don’t, Joe. Promise me. Promise me,'” Biden told CNN.

Holy hell. If the second most powerful man in the country would have to sell their home to afford cancer treatment, imagine what most Americans would have to do. It’s sad how even having the option to sell his home is considered a privilege here that millions will never have.

[bettyellen]

1. Puts this into perspective, huh?

[Mr. Evil]

62. This just goes to show

what a sad state of affairs our country has descended into. It's heartbreaking what Joe Biden felt he had to do to try to save his son. It's uplifting that Barack Obama reassured him that if it came to that point it was not going to be necessary.
Donald Trump would see the death of one of his children as a financial windfall.

[bettyellen]

63. Remember he cut off a nephew I think it was - for spite! Also greed.

[wryter2000]

2. Crap

Now I'm crying again.

[a kennedy]

15. Damn it, me too......

[Maru Kitteh]

52. Me too. 😢 I just don't understand how we can go from these decent, good people

to that repulsive bucket of waste. The very thought of him sitting in that office . . . where Kennedy sat, where FDR formulated the New Deal and Lincoln ended slavery . . where our President sits now.

[malaise]

3. Meanwhile Cheney can buy a heart

Go figure

[neverforget]

8. But the Devil owns his soul

[get the red out]

23. I don't think

He ever had one to sell.

[tclambert]

40. When Lucifer collects, he'll say, "But it's so small and shriveled."

"Didn't you ever feed it or give it any exercise?"

[Ms. Toad]

14. Stop suggesting organs can be bought.

Millions of ordinary Americans need transplants - and there are not enough organs to go around. My daughter happens to be one of them. Many die on the waiting list - I have many friends with the same disease as my daughter who have either died on the waiting list, or because their livers were in such bad shape they never recovered from the transplant.

Insinuations that Cheney bought his heart discourages people from making their organs available for all of the ordinarly people who need them, just to spite somoene based on the mistaken belief that that someone might be able to buy your organ. That mistaken belief, when it results in fewer people donating their organs, means that more people, potentially my daughter, will die when there is only one and someone else is slightly closer to death. The scale used to allocate is Model for End Stage Liver Disease. End Stage is a polite way of saying close to death.

Cheney, in fact, waited far longer than average in the transplant region where he got his heart because - based on the scoring system for hearts - he had longer to live than others who needed it more. They were repeatedly moved ahead of Cheney - despite all the money Cheney had available to "buy" a heart). It's been a while since I looked up the details - but I believe his wait was about double the average wait time for that region.

(That is not to say that money means nothing - anyone with access to resources will always have an easier time. You can choose your doctor with fewer restrictions because you likely have a better health care plan; you can buy a name brand drug - or an newer one not covered yet by insurance because you can pay for it out of pocket; you can drive farther - or fly somewhere - for care because you can afford to; you can move to a region with a lower demand for organs and a shorter waiting list.

What you can't do is buy an organ. If there is a match ahead of you in the region in which you are listed, you (and during his longer than average wait Cheney) are SOL.

[malaise]

17. After his war crimes he should not have been

on any list for organs

[Ms. Toad]

21. Not the point. Railing about how Cheney bought a heart is false, and increases the likelihood

that many innocent people will die because there are no organs available.

Whether you believe he should be eligible based on what he has done is a completely different question than whether he bought his heart.

There are all sorts of transplant criteria that are hotly debated - should an alcoholic, who destroyed the liver he was born with, be given a second chance? Since he's competing directly with my daughter, whose disease is genetic, it's a bit challenging. But there are criteria that, once met, make alcoholics eligible to be listed. Once they are listed - it is all a matter of where they are, who matches, and who else in that region matches that is worse off, and (in some instances) is there someone in a different region who much closer to death.

And, FWIW, even if he had been convicted of war crimes - he would still be eligible for a heart (as would anyone else hanging out in prison). Deliberate indifference to health conditions has been ruled to be cruel and unusual punishment by the Supreme Court.

[malaise]

22. Valid point

Hope your daughter gets the organ she needs

[MADem]

37. Organs CAN be bought. It's not right, but it DOES happen. Shouldn't, but does.

It isn't terribly common in USA (though it HAS happened), but in other countries? Common as hell.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2016/01/05/the-market-for-human-organs-is-destroying-lives/?utm_term=.2d9768067e6b

In the United States, mandated independent advocates for living donors, who represent the needs and motives of every living kidney donor, have failed to identify cases in which force, coercion and fraud have motivated individuals to forfeit an organ. Such was the case of the infiltration of U.S. hospitals and transplant units by an international kidney brokering scheme that trafficked poor kidney sellers from Israel (most of them new immigrants) to provide kidneys to foreign transplant tourists and American citizens. The head of the scheme was finally caught in a police sting and pleaded guilty in federal court in Trenton, N.J.

I have a relative who is doing swimmingly with a brand new heart, installed this past summer. The waiting list in populated, hospital-rich New England is long and after being told that the odds were horrible in New England and would be better on the west coast, my heart-failing relative moved to LA into temporary housing to wait for a heart. Lacking the resources to afford this kind of expenditure, members of my large and generous family all got together and threw as much cash as we each could spare into the hat to finance this and the expensive post op treatments, appointments and medicines (to say nothing of transport for my relative and some family members). Expecting to be there six months or more, my relative was shocked to get a call weeks after arrival. Despite a few setbacks, the overall trajectory has been really good, and my relative is doing well post-op. There was money left over, and my relative "paid it forward" and donated it to another individual who needed money to pay for "heart transplant incidentals."

Never thought this kind of thing would touch my family, but ya never know.

[Ms. Toad]

45. Having the resources to utilize medical choice is not the same as buying an organ.

When your relative moved to a different transplant region, your relative was still on the waiting list behind everyone else with a worse prognosis (and jumped the line above people with a better prognosis). Money did not buy your relative a heart - or a place at the front of the line.

Money makes it easier to access medical care - of all sorts - is precisely what I mentioned in my post. That is NOT the same thing as buying an organ.

As for your article, Obviously when I said organs could not be bought I was not suggesting there is no crime in the US.

[TNNurse]

30. Cheney has all that blood money

from Halliburton and the wars he helped start.

[maddiemom]

46. He made killing with Halliburton in Iraq.

[secondwind]

48. tRump has suggested that he may give Cheney the Medal of Freedom... *barf*

[DK504]

61. So much for VA.

He was a JAG officer. WTH?

[Phoenix61]

4. That's how it works

Once you can't work you better hurry up and die in 18 months because that's when COBRA covered insurance ends. And without insurance you pay full price for all care. Those rates your insurance company negotiated? Poof! Thought out of net work care was expensive? You ain't seen nothing yet. Pathetic, just effing pathetic.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

5. Can say that again!

[Doreen]

12. COBRA!!!?? who could afford that!!

I had been offered that once. Lets see out of work and it was just $600 a month...um..I do not flipping think so. Oh that was like 14 years ago. What is it now $1500 a month with no income?

[MgtPA]

28. $1,734.49 for us.

[Doreen]

33. wow!

[Phoenix61]

29. COBRA is not an insurance plan

It allows you to purchase the plan your employer offered you. Most employers contribute to the cost of insurance while you are employed. Under COBRA you get the same plan but you pay the full price, the employer's part plus the employee contribution. Cost depends on the cost of the plan your employer had.

[Ms. Toad]

19. HIPAA guarantees you access to coverage,

unless you create a more than 60-day (I think) gap in coverage.

Like COBRA (the earlier, first short term promise of insurance outside of work), that insurance will be horrendously expensive. But if you have insurance, the ~1998 HIPAA act guarantees that you are entitled to continuing access to insurance - regardless of pre-existing conditions.

[etherealtruth]

6. relax ... the republicans have this covered ... something about health savings accounts

save $25 dollars a week, every week over an entire life time and never (ever) get ill you MAY be able to afford a round of chemo by the time you are 60.

[hibbing]

41. Always their solution

Like all these people with no insurance have all this money sitting around, if only these accounts were available they could have insurance.


Peace

[etherealtruth]

42. Hell ... I make a decent living and could never pay for my and my children's medical expenses

.... and none of us have any significant chronic illnesses.

[SammyWinstonJack]

51. I hear Congress has a pretty sweet health insurance plan.....who pays for that?

[flamingdem]

7. This is just getting too ridiculous

and painful.

[Initech]

9. But.... but... they're gonna replace it with something better!!!!

If our healthcare is this expensive, something is fucked up.

[Sherman A1]

10. Such a sad commentary

On the world we live in.

[WiffenPoof]

11. Not to take away from the story...

...but Joe was the second poorest senator during his tenure. He was never in it for the money. Still, there should be no reason why he or anyone should have to sell their homes in order to stay alive.

P

[Doreen]

13. My boyfriend and his family lost everything during his 1st round of cancer.

[pansypoo53219]

16. my uncle is in s hit bucket because of 8 ambulance rides. like 60k. his wife had lung issues.

they weathered losing their daughter at 18 who had severe CP. but she started smoking again. no shit. of course he has gone turd direction. his dad would be pissed.

[Schema Thing]

18. I don't understand this, because they could just pay for his insurance, yes?

[elmac]

24. this is an example of a person with great insurance, until cancer struck

"I get letters every week from people looking for some way to pay off a bill," Dr. Brawley says. "I get the guy who thinks he has great insurance and then his 12-year-old kid gets leukemia, and he finds out that the 20 percent copay on a $300,000 health bill is more money than he makes in a year. That's a real story."


This is why some people take out extra insurance just for cancer. Here are some of the costds:

"We have a number of drugs in oncology that have been FDA-approved in the last decade or so that tend to cost around $100,000 for a year's treatment," he says. A few examples: $85,000 per year for the colon cancer drug Avastin; $92,000 for the prostate cancer drug Provenge; and $8,000 to $9,000 a month for the melanoma drug Yervoy.

From .bankrate.com

[lastlib]

35. And the F*CKING pahrmaceutical companies make out like bandits....!

. . . . . . .

Which is a most polite term for what they really are...

[Maraya1969]

38. Isn't there supposed to be a maximum amount you have to pay with the AHC? Or is this different?

[Schema Thing]

60. That's what I understand. 10Kish should be around the top figure for anyone in any circumstance...

is what I thought.

He would have had great insurance, with no yearly or lifetime limits.

[madokie]

20. I teared up

reading this. We are about to loose something like we've never had before when these two walk out of the Whitehouse for the last time. I'm ashamed I didn't work harder to elect Hillary and will carry that shame to the grave with me. FUCK FUCK FUCK.

How do we ever get back to square one?

ETA: Also what this shows us is that Joe hasn't been on the take all these years he's been in elected office. Compared to turtleface or any number of the 'CONs, some dems too who have gotten filthy rich since being elected to public office.

[FSogol]

25. +1 n/t

[liquid diamond]

47. Don't blame yourself

for Hillary's loss. Look, I understand republicans voting for Trump, but I can't fathom why a fucking Bernie zealot would vote third party or write in his name knowing what was at stake. Millions of lives will be lost because Hillary didn't pass their fucking purity test. They had to vote with their conscience they said. How is your conscience now? Fucking traitors. Sorry for the rant, but this is just one of many tragedies Americans will face under a trump presidency.

[Corey_Baker08]

58. +1

[Stellar]

26. I love those two, and I will miss them dearly.

[cynatnite]

27. This just breaks my fucking heart. n/t

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

31. Would he have qualified for VA healthcare?

I'm not sure how this works if one is deployed from the Guard.

[wishstar]

34. A Vet must have service connected disability to get VA healthcare

Apparently he did not have service connected disability and not poverty level, so ineligible for VA.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

44. Thanks.

Learn something everyday.

[former9thward]

53. No, you got misinformation.

A veteran does not need a service related disability to receive VA care.

From the VA:

Most Veterans who enlisted after September 7, 1980, or entered active duty after October 16, 1981, must have served 24 continuous months or the full period for which they were called to active duty in order to be eligible. This minimum duty requirement may not apply to Veterans who were discharged for a disability incurred or aggravated in the line of duty, for a hardship or “early out,” or those who served prior to September 7, 1980. Since there are a number of other exceptions to the minimum duty requirements, VA encourages all Veterans to apply so that we may determine their enrollment eligibility.

http://www.va.gov/healthbenefits/apply/veterans.asp

Beau Biden served one year in Iraq so he did not serve the 24 months required. Had he gotten a service related disability that period would have been waived. At the end of his life he was treated at Walter Reed which is the nation's premier military hospital.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

54. And thank you.

I know a young man who served four tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, but no tour was as long as 24 months. Surely, he qualifies for VA services? I only see him a couple of times a year at family gatherings, and it's not a topic that actually comes up.

[former9thward]

57. I am sure he would qualify.

And I strongly urge him to apply so a determination can be made. Even if he does not want to use VA services at this time he may want to use them in the future.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

59. Thanks.

I will tell him when I see him.

[Waldorf_]

32. As a current cancer patient I can tell you that it is insanely expensive.

Was diagnosed 6 yrs. ago. Radiation, chemo and 3 liver surgeries I know I have exceeded a million $$$.

And with January comes the co-pays again. Have to order some shots online and was informed my co-pay was $686.

[Maraya1969]

39. I don't understand. Do you have Obamacare? I guess they have high deductibles too though.

It is weird that I feel fortunate because I had a fucking debilitating condition when I was in my 20's and got on SSD because I could not work. I've not had to deal with big medical costs because of it.

[Waldorf_]

43. I have insurance thru work. This years deductible went up to $1000 and max out of pocket

remained the same, $3k a year.

[iluvtennis]

36. Yep, this repeal of healthcare is a big deal especially for folks with terminal illnesses...

..and pre-exisiting conditions.

[TexasBushwhacker]

49. The thing about a serious illness is it's not just about health insurance

Even if you have disability insurance, it doesn't cover your full salary, so you have the copays your have to cover. If your spouse was working, they will either have to take unpaid leave from their job to care for you, or pay for a caregiver. Your expenses are going up while your income has gone down. And plenty of employers don't offer disability insurance.

[Sunlei]

50. Much love Joe Biden & Barack Obama

[smirkymonkey]

55. Heartbreaking.

What a beautiful photo and a beautiful friendship. I can't believe that we have to say goodbye to these two good men to make room for two of the most evil men in the country.

[DeminPennswoods]

56. Incoming prez cut off health care for his nephew

Just for comparison...

[left-of-center2012]

64. Had it been Trump & Pence ...

Trump would have bought the house cheap,
kicked the Pence family out,
and sold it at a big profit.