NY and AZ seem to be going in opposite directions.
I suspect this will be reversed, but still, it's Arizona...
NY Times
By MARC LACEY
Published: December 2, 2010
Arizona Cuts Financing for Transplant Patients
Quote:
PHOENIX — Even physicians with decades of experience telling patients that their lives
are nearing an end are having difficulty discussing a potentially fatal condition that has arisen in Arizona:
Death by budget cut
Effective at the beginning of October, Arizona stopped financing certain transplant operations
under the state’s version of Medicaid.
Many doctors say the decision amounts to a death sentence for some low-income patients,
who have little chance of survival without transplants and lack the
hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to pay for them.
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Quote:
The issue has led to a fierce political battle, with Democrats condemning the reductions
as “Brewercare,” after Gov. Jan Brewer.
“We made it very clear at the time of the vote that this was a death sentence,”
said State Senator Leah Landrum Taylor, a Democrat. “This is not a luxury item.
We’re not talking about cosmetic surgery.”
The Republican governor has in turn blamed “Obamacare,” meaning the federal health care overhaul,
for the transplant cuts even though the Arizona vote came in March,
before President Obama signed that bill into law.
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