Ideology before patients

We see in the SST another example of how the Government puts ideology before patients.

28 year old mother Mary Bradley has cancer and on the recommendation of her oncologist is having private treatment involving Oxaliplatin which is not yet funded by the state. Her family are paying the $40,000 to maximise her chances of keeping her alive.

Now on top of Oxaliplatin, Bradley also needs the standard chemotherapy drugs that she would have got for free if she was having public treatment. But because her family are willing to spend some of their own money to maximise her chances, the Government penalises them by refusing to provide the same drugs they would to any other patient.

Now what does the Health Minister say? He will not consider a system to reimburse patients for drugs they paid for privately but which would otherwise be free as it “would undermine the public system and shift resources from the public to the private system”.

The Minister is worried about ideology. He is not worried about the patient. Mary Bradley and her family have paid taxes all their life. The Government has budgeted funds for it to provide standard chemotherapy drugs to anyone who needs it. But spitefully, it will not do it, when the family decides to go the extra mile and wants additional drugs not funded by the Government. They are not worried about private vs public sector – they just want to maximise the chances of survival.