Man who lost state aid cut off from ventilator. This is an outrage!

[Robin Hood]

Douglas Schmidt, who suffered a massive seizure after state-paid medication stopped, offers a face to the budget crisis
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/106907392561090.xml
11/17/03

DON COLBURN

At the request of a court-appointed guardian, doctors on Sunday removed Douglas Schmidt from a ventilator that helped keep him alive for eight months.

Schmidt, 37, has been unconscious and severely brain-damaged since March 1, when he collapsed in his Portland apartment from a massive seizure after his state-paid medication for epilepsy ran out.

He became a local and national "poster child" for the human fallout of budget cutbacks in public services. Just last month, in a speech on national health care reform, former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber cited Schmidt as "a tragic case in point" of why government cannot save money by cutting health care for the poor.

Schmidt has been in Portland Adventist Medical Center since Oct. 26, when he was moved from a nearby convalescent care home because of mounting medical crises: pneumonia, a collapsed lung, a drug-resistant infection and kidney failure.

[Supormom]

1. Why aren't the pro-lifers speaking out in this case?

[RobertSeattle]

2. Cuz fixing the problem would require raising taxes

I'm waiting for a major issue where it will be a binary between "Saving Lives" or "Raising Taxes". Gee, wonder what the decision will be?

[Zero Gravitas]

3. in this case

he's poor.

Right-to-life only applies to those who can pay for medical care.

[Robin Hood]

5. It's because of welfare.

He was on State aid, and they don't support state aid unless it's for the rich or corporations.

[laconicsax]

8. Because he stopped being a fetus 37 years ago

once you're born, they don't give a shit.

[Robin Hood]

10. They don't give a shit about Fetuses either.

That's a smoke screen argument for controlling women. If these Neanderthals had their way, women would lose their vote and blacks would be slaves again.

[David__77]

12. I'm sure some Catholics and others are...

Many "pro-lifers" are hypocritical, but there are some who are at least philosophically consistent. I think most are Catholic and are opposed to the death penality and also oppose draconian cuts to social services that they recognize lead to deaths.

[Loonman]

4. Where are the "save Terri" folks?

:wtf:

[Lars39]

6. This is genocide. This could literally be my BIL someday.

Same age, same problem, dependent on the state, and the whim of whoever holds the pursestrings. :grr:

[mmonk]

7. the ugly side and dark side

of the republican starve the government of funding strategy.

[liberalhistorian]

9. This is the REAL health care crisis,

NOT the bullshit manufactured so-called "crisis" of malpractice insurance the greedy and selfish doctors are whining and being crybabies about. That so many people either have no access at all to decent health care or are forced into bankruptcy or other financial crisis by greedy doctors and bottom-line-oriented hospitals who think nothing of putting liens on their houses and taking everything else they own is the REAL crisis. And I'm so fucking sick and tired of the whiny, crybaby doctors being listened to and pampered and kowtowed to by the politicians who refuse to do ANYTHING at all to alleviate the real crisis.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Move him to Florida and have a non-Christian custodian

claim that he has a right to die. Jeb Bush will personally pay his medical bills to keep him alive for Christian reasons. (However, the patient must absolutely not show any signs of enjoying life, or all state assistance shall be withdrawn).

[BiggJawn]

18. Yeah, let Jeb save him...

What? no relatives of voting age who reside in Florida?

Fukkim, then....

[gratuitous]

13. Mr. Schmidt will die soon

But aren't you glad that he's not receiving his state-sponsored anti-seizure medication any more? No, instead of being a functioning member of society, the State of Oregon (read: the anti-tax cementheads such as Kevin Mannix, Don McIntyre and Bill Sizemore) cut off Mr. Schmidt's anti-seizure medication because it was too costly. He has since run up about a quarter million dollars in wholly unnecessary medical costs, and will be dead by Thanksgiving.

Another absolutely brilliant example of neocon "logic."

[Robin Hood]

14. Fuck Mannix!

Why does he keep coming up in editorials. Did they not get the news that he lost?

[liberalhistorian]

15. And you better believe that the

bureauidiots making these decisions and the politicians so eager to screw people when it comes to health care will NEVER have to deal with not being able to pay for their own care, that's for damn sure.

[Robin Hood]

16. Let's kick all politicians off of health care.

See how they like it.

[rucky]

17. The Repugs Will Find a Way To Blame Gov. Kulangowski (D)

Hopefully we won't see a repeat of the Recall Roberts campaign 10 yrs ago.

[Pastiche423]

19. Welcome to Oregon post March 1, 2003

W/i a month after meds and co-pays were cut off, seven people had already committed suicide in my county, alone. One in the his caseworker's office.

A tenant in my building is schizophrenic. Two weeks after his meds were cut, he left our building in a straight jacket. He has not returned.

If you do not have insurance or medicaid, you cannot get a doctor's appointment. The doctor's here do not take new medicare patients. The only way to see a doctor is to go to the ER.

In the gentleman's case above, he would have been healthy, alive and it would have cost the state thousands of dollors less, if the state had paid for his meds.

But then, the lives of the poor don't matter in whistle ass' Amerikka.

[Kanary]

20. Some Action

Thanks for posting this, as I will print this and give it to some folx who don't "believe" there are any serious cuts happening. This is certainly worth some letters being written.

Rather than worry about the RW groups who don't take up this issue, what about *us* doing something about it?

Kanary