Excerpted from -
http://www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/mark_bonokoski/2010/03/06/13138311.htmlKent Pankow lives in Edmonton, in a province and a country that is trying to either kill him or bankrupt him.
No sense mincing words.
Suffering from brain cancer, Kent Pankow was literally forced to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. for lifesaving surgery at a cost to family and friends of $106,000 after the health-care system in Alberta left him hanging in bureaucratic limbo for 16 crucial days, his tumour meanwhile migrating to an unreachable part of the brain, while it dithered over his case file, ultimately deciding he was not surgery worthy.
Now, with the Mayo Clinic having done what the Alberta Cancer Board wouldn't authorize or even explain, but with the tumour unable to be totally removed, the province will now not fund the expensive drug, Avastin, that the Mayo prescribed to keep him alive and keep the remaining tumour from increasing in size despite the costs of the drug being totally funded by the province for other forms of cancer.
Kent Pankow, as it turns out, has the right disease but he has it in the wrong place.
Had he lung cancer, breast cancer, or colon cancer, then the cost of the drug $4,555 per treatment, two times a month would be totally covered by Alberta's version of OHIP.
But he doesn't.
And so he is not only a victim of brain cancer, he is also a victim of arbitrary discrimination.
Full disclosure. Kent Pankow, a 40-year-old Red Seal sous chef, is a son of the man who married the spouse of my late brother. And it was while vacationing with them at their winter home in Los Cabos, Mexico, recently that this story began to unfold back in their home province of Alberta.
But do not think, even for a moment, that this could never happen in Toronto or other parts of Ontario.
Our supposedly universal federal health care system, the pride of most Canadians and the political struggle of America, is only as good as the length of the waiting line and whether you have the right disease at the right time.
If only Canada had a health care system like the Canadian style system Obama is giving to us undeserving Americans sad episodes like this one would never happen. He would have to get in line here too which is a much more fair system than what's in place now. Why is this man special? Why does he get to come to America and be helped by capitalist medical professionals when the other people in his country don't?
Obama will make things fair and equal for all. No special treatment for anyone. The government will help who it wants to help based on the common good. Outdated Judeo-Christian morals will finally be abolished and the greater compassion of government will come shining through.
