Our Big-Time Investigative Media

The NY Times leads with Obama's factually deficient story about the campaign volunteer who died with her Obama t-shirt on:

WASHINGTON — For a moment, President Obama’s pledge to keep fighting for major health care legislation got personal on Thursday night as he told supporters at a fund-raiser about a former campaign worker in St. Louis without health insurance who had died of breast cancer.

“She insisted she is going to be buried in an Obama T-shirt,” he said, drawing nervous laughter from the otherwise hushed crowd. “How can I say to her, ‘You know what, we’re giving up’? How can I say to her family, ‘This is too hard’? How can Democrats on the Hill say, ‘This is politically too risky’? How can Republicans on the Hill say, ‘We’re better off just blocking anything from happening?’ ”

Obama told the crowd that the woman had no health insurance, so viewed that way the Times reporting is literally accurate.  However, the woman, Melanie Shouse, did in fact have insurance - she had a catastrophic policy with a $5,000 deductible and did not want to drop a few hundred bucks on a routine exam and a mammogram, despite feeling a lump in her breast at age 37.

The Times couldn't get her name or her actual insurance information?  Her story was good enough to lead with but not quite good enough to check?  They will be correcting the President promptly, I have no doubt.  Hillary, of course, is shaking her head.

Over at ABC News Sunlen Miller did get a name and moved the anecdote deep into her coverage (my emphasis):

And what may be a lasting anecdote for the president’s push on health care reform – Mr. Obama told for the first time a story about a woman in St. Louis who had been part of his campaign. 

She couldn’t afford health insurance and put off her exams. After a tough battle for four years, throughout the campaign. She died 5 days ago. 

“She insisted that she is going to be buried in an Obama t-shirt,” Obama said, “She was fighting that whole time not just to get me elected, not even to get herself health care, but because she understood that there were others coming behind her who were going to find themselves in the situation. And he didn’t want others going through that something.”

The President questioned, then how he could give up on health care reform now. 

“How can I say to her, ‘you know what – we’re giving up?’ How can I say to her family, this is too hard. How can Democrats on the Hill say this is politically risky? How can Republicans on the Hill say we’re better off just blocking anything from happening?”

“That can’t be the message,” Obama concluded.

The president did not divulge the name of the woman – but the White House says he was referencing Melanie Shouse, 41, who passed away on January 30th. 

The highlighted paragraph looks more like notes than a final draft.  Or maybe Ms. Miller found her inner Ernest, briefly.  But she didn't find time to Google Ms. Shouse and correct Obama's "lasting anecdote".  Hilary nods.

AND FOR THE DEEPLY PEDANTIC:  Obama said Ms. Shouse was "buried" in an Obama t-shirt, but apparently she had asked to be cremated.

STILL MORE:  Here are three other sources on Ms. Shouse's insurance situation:

Ms. Shouse statement for a demonstration on 9/22/2009:

My name is Melanie Shouse, and I am a breast cancer survivor. Four years ago, at age 37, I was an entrepreneur struggling to grow my small business, and only able to afford a catastrophic health insurance policy with co-pays and deductibles nearing ten thousand dollars. I had to take the ultimate risk with my health in order to chase the American Dream, like so many small business owners in America today. So when I first felt a small lump, denial seemed the only option available to me.

But as our nation has learned so painfully over the last eight years, denial only leads to catastrophe. In October 2005, I was forced to admit reality by walking into Siteman Cancer Center for the dreaded diagnosis. But by this time, the cancer had spread throughout my body to bone, lungs and liver. It was now classified as Stage 4 breast cancer, the kind you don't recover from. My chance of survival was pegged at just 13% as a result of the delay in diagnosis and treatment caused by inadequate health coverage.

My worries were not limited to my health, however. I had no savings and no real assets to cover the monumental costs associated with these expensive treatments. And with this prize-winning pre-existing condition, I had no opportunity to seek a better private health plan, as I was now shut out of the market. Having no other choice, I quickly turned to our public Missouri Medicaid program, and within days I received this Medicaid card that would help save my life. Now I could walk into one of the top cancer centers in the world right up the street here and receive top-notch care without having to sell a kidney to cover the insurance deductible!

My treatment commenced post haste, and I am standing here today thanks to the Missouri Medicaid program, and the federal Medicare program for which I became eligible after a two-year waiting period. These efficient and effective public health plans have enabled me to receive some of the best cutting-edge care in the world, equivalent to the coverage our Senators and Congressmen enjoy, without ever having to wait or worry.

Some thoughts: First, the timeline is murky - if she first felt a lump four years ago, that would have been September 2005; she was formally diagnosed in October 2005, so the delay was minor. Fine, maybe "four years" is more like four and half years.

But set that aside - once diagnosed, she promptly availed herself of Medicaid.  So why the wait - wouldn't she have been eligible for Medicaid six months earlier (or whatever), or did the business have to falter first?

In a story cited below we learn that Ms. Shouse and her partner had just put $30,000 into their small business in 2004, so cash was tight when she noticed the lump.  That would compare with the "monumental" annual expense of $10,000 in deductibles and co-pays.

In this video (she comes in at the two minute mark) Ms. Shouse says she ignored her problem for several years.  If she was diagnosed in 2005, she suspected something was wrong in 2003.  Wow - she had a lump in her breast but ignored it so she could max out her debt and open a store.  Maybe based on her age and family history (with which I am not familiar) that made sense.

People's World, Feb 4 does not add much.

We get more background on her financial situation from an interview last September:

Shouse, 40, of Overland, was diagnosed nearly four years ago. She had put off going to the doctor because she knew she couldn't afford health care costs. She had a catastrophic health insurance policy with a $5,000 deductible. She calls it "hit by a bus kind of insurance."

When she did seek care, she went straight to Siteman Cancer Center.

"By then, I could have been diagnosed from across the street. It wasn't a surprise," she said. 

...Shouse, who had co-owned Sweet Meat Stix, a beef kabob business in St. Ann, had only carried the catastrophic policy. Her business partner, Steve Hart, also carried a catastrophic policy. He has since battled liver disease.

Shouse said they could only afford such policies because they saved, borrowed and maxed out their credit cards to start their own business. They previously had sold their product at festivals, but opened a store in 2004.

It was only after spending $30,000 to transform a former Domino's store into a business that Shouse noticed her first tumor. She finally was diagnosed in October 2005. She soon became too ill to work.

Once on Medicaid, a lawyer provided pro bono work to apply for her to get Medicare. That's when she learned Stage 4 cancer is a "jackpot" diagnosis for being certified disabled and receiving Medicare - after a two-year waiting period.

Her bills are now mostly paid by Medicare and Medicaid. What bills remain go into a pile that she never looks at. That still does not keep her from having to worry about health care.

Shouse is now on her third round of chemotherapy to fight off the bone cancer and liver tumors. That treatment did not keep her from becoming bedridden for a month this spring. She was then given Avastin, a biologic therapy that costs $6,500 for a two-week supply. Since then she has been able to keep food down and "get off the couch." Her insurance provider has since sent her a letter saying it won't pay for Avastin.

"The insurance bureaucracy shouldn't stand between me and my doctor and treatment," Shouse said. "Like they know more than a world-renowned oncologist."

Medicare, Medicaid and her private insurance all declined this treatment?  Well, Avastin is an odd and expensive drug:

But on average, Avastin only increases patients' life spans by a couple months. The big sales are partly a result of the high cost--up to $55,000 per patient--and the fact that many people are treated so only a few can benefit. In breast cancer, the drug hasn't extended patients' lives at all in several studies.

"Is it a home run drug? No," says Jennifer Litton, a breast cancer specialist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. "When I've seen it work, it works phenomenally, but we need to get smarter as to who those people are that get those dramatic responses."

Comments

[qrstuv]

"How can Republicans on the Hill say we’re better off just blocking anything from happening?”

What's funny about this is that law ALWAYS blocks activity. Why do we want more blocking and fewer options? We want less blocking and more options.

[Danube of Thought]

Like just about everything Obama tells us, this little parable won't withstand cross. If he'd ever been In a courtroom he'd know that.
But he hasn't.

[Ignatz]

--Her bills are now mostly paid by Medicare and Medicaid.--

So I guess her not being treated was her choice.
Bambi needs to find a better example if he thinks he's going to reanimate the corps of Obamacare.

[bgates]

How can Republicans on the Hill say we’re better off just blocking anything from happening?”

It's my understanding that the Republicans aren't attempting to forbid any legislative action, just the legislation that the Democrats have proposed.

As somebody once said, "I don't oppose all health care legislation. What I am opposed to is dumb health care legislation. What I am opposed to is rash health care legislation. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by George Soros and Rahm Emmanuel and other arm-chair, weekend doctors in this Administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne."

Or something.

[Boatbuilder]

"How can Republicans on the Hill say we're better off just blocking anything from happening?"

Easy: 1) They are not saying that;
2) that is precisely how I, and apparently a majority of my fellow citizens, feel about it.

How can you say we need to pass this monstrous piece of carp no matter what, even though: a)it's a monstrous piece of carp, b) a solid majority of the American electorate opposes it; c) the health insurance "crisis" is not a crisis?

[PD]

How can Republicans on the Hill say we’re better off just blocking anything from happening?

How can the executive in the White House say such monstrous lies as this?

[PD]

Obama seems concerned about health-care reform dying. Perhaps we can allay his concerns if we promise to bury it in an Obama T-shirt.

[Tom Maguire]

As somebody once said, "I don't oppose all health care legislation. What I am opposed to is dumb health care legislation.

I'm going to steal that or die tryin'.

[Joan]

I don't like to judge and I hope I'm not being harsh, but if or when a woman finds a lump she can make an appointment with her family physician ($120 ?) so that he can order a mammogram (anywhere from $600 to $1,000?). If found to be malignant, the lump is removed (still financially doable, even for someone without insurance, and then other treatment starts, which approaches her deductible.)

In our small city, the local hospital sends a mobile mammogram van out several times a year to parks and other public places so that people can get a mammogram without even seeing a physician.

Doctors, et al. take credit cards now. As easy as it is to obtain several credit cards, I would think any woman (or man) with a tell-tale and suspicious breast lump would immediately find a way to obtain a diagnosis and early treatment.

The no-insurance and catastrophic deductible this lady had shouldn't have prevented her from obtaining treatment when she first felt the lump.

Something is puzzling and wrong here. Her decision to ignore a breast lump for several years makes no sense at all, no matter how much money she'd sunk into her business. The public is inundated with the danger in ignoring early warning signs of cancer, what with all of the publicity on TV, newspapers, etc. that our society provides.

This lady's decision making is truly troubling. And, I'll repeat, I don't want to sound judgmental or flippant or anything else -- it's just hard to believe and it's hard to blame the present health care available in the U.S. for this woman's untimely and sad death.

[clarice]

TM, I don't know if this will run but I blogged both your posts on the latest healthcare whopper.

The gullibility and sloth of the media knows no bounds, does it?

[Jim Ryan]

Palin gave a speech tonight, Breitbart introducing.

[Ann]

Smooches, Jim Ryan!

I missed most of it and was trying to find it online. Thankies.

[nicem]

Obamacare and dems legislation is all overseas. We entitle millions to free healthcare, housing, food, etc. if you have the right diseases like AIDS, Malaria, etc. Dems and Obama couldn't get healthcare in the states so they sent it overseas. Obama wants america to pay and they will when they're broke.

She should have been counting the money going overseas.

[Gerry Olsen]

Yes, Avastin is a relatively new and expensive drug. There was, and still is, hope for it in treating cancer. It was developed by Genentech as an anti-angiogenesis drug. It works by stopping the growth of new blood vessels. This is important for cancer since tumors need to constantly develop new blood vessels to feed themselves and grow. So until much chemo which looks to kill the cancer cells directly, Avastin tries to kill a cells food supply.

In later stage breast cancer, Avastin has shown a significant benefit for progression free survival (I'm talking increasing from 12 months to 18 months - so big % but still short absolute time), but not a statistically significant benefit for overall survival (maybe 24 months or so with or without it). This translates into a better quality of life, but unfortunately, not a longer life. Avastin appears to go after one primary growth factor the allows cells to grow, however, the are other growth factors as well and cancer is relatively smart and will look for other ways to grow if one channel is cut off.

I believe Avastin is currently aprpoved for late stage breast cancer (and colon and lung cancers). It is now being tested on early stage breast cancers to see if it may help there.

But you can rest assured that if we had a more public run health care system it would be used much less. I believe it took Canada many years before approving it's use and in the UK, requests for Avastin are often declined (if I recall correctly). So yes it is expensive with questionable results, but it is still a relatively new drug and it will still take time to trial. The chances of Ms. Shouse getting Avastin in those public health care systems would have been even less.

I am not a doctor or in the medical profession.

P.S. I think once you are diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer your are eligible for SSDI (but I am not certain about that).

[daddy]

In a complete surprise, the BBC has already covered the Sarah Palin speech on their TV Broadcast I'm watching overseas. The conclusion: You Tea Party guys are angry about out of control government spending.

In addition the BBC is now actually doing a decent report on the collapse of Climategate. They are highlighting the errors, and actually pointing the finger, while at the same time giving skeptics the opportunity to comment without interruption. Amazing.

If the BBC is doing this, the wheels have completely come off the Climate Bus. At least in Europe.

[Fritz]

Daddy I was flipping channels during halftime of the UW - ASU bball game and my jaw almost hit the floor when I saw the BBC fairly cover some of the errors in the IPCC report. Hell (Washington DC) must be freezing over.

[clarice]

That's really something, daddy..perhaps the impending collapse of the Euro is focusing the BBC's attention on some realities.

niters.

[daddy]

Nite nite Clarice. Stay warm.

Fritz,

That was it, all about the IPCC flaws, and allowing Pielke to comment unmolested while the number 2 at IPCC got grilled and babbled incoherently. Amazing. The BBC actually practicing Journalism. Who would have thunk it.

[Zeke]

I hate quotes like this "...I'm standing here today thanks to the Missouri Medicaid program..." WRONG! You are standing there thanks to your fellow citizens who pay taxes and who pay more for their hospital bills because you made bad choices.

I'm also assuming the vaunted MO Medicaid program is actually paying healthcare providers unlike here in Illinois where providers wait MONTHS to receive their pittance from the state.

Finally, under the proposed socialization of medicine this person would not have received some fantastic life saving treatment, she would have been referred to an "end of life" counselor.

[Danube of Thought]

Isn't it delightful that no one has heard a peep out of the oaf Gore while the fraud he championed is being disemboweled?

[Fritz]

I hear the Vancouver Olympics are so desperate for snow they have invited Gore to bring his vaunted chill effect. Vancouver is probably the only place on the planet experiencing global warming just when we don't need it. People were out in t-shirts today.

Perhaps the tea party movement can sue Gore and his buddies for fraud. The monies they have gotten from governments all over the world would almost pay for Obamacare.

[Captain Hate]

Speaking of glowbull warming acolytes, I'm reading an excellent book by Richard Powers, an immensely talented writer, which is unfortunately littered with sporadic "educated class" snarky comments which only serve to irritate me as I partake of his otherwise gifted prose. I'm hoping he's sufficiently lacking in hubris to subsequently eviscerate in print some of the false prophets that led him astray. Otherwise he'll drop a notch in my ultimate judgement..

[Fritz]

Daddy

Its amazing how different the European and North American media are with regards to the almost daily revelations of climate science hanky panky. Even the most lefty news media like the BBC and Guardian are doing serious stories. Over here absolutely nothing. It reminds me of the coverage of the surge in Iraq.

[n]

The surge in Iraq is Obama's smart power surge or 'pals of Obama and intelligence committee get cash for their NGOs,' especially in Afghanistan. The US are doing stories ons the failure of health care domestication too.

Where's the Europeans?

[Fresh Air]

Obama seems concerned about health-care reform dying. Perhaps we can allay his concerns if we promise to bury it in an Obama T-shirt.

No, that won't do. As Winston Churchill once said about a dead mother-in-law: "Embalm, cremate, bury at sea. Take no chances!"

[BR]

Oooo, DoT, I like that word for Gore and Climategate - disemboweled.

I've been away from JOM for a week - what's the latest in politics, humor and cooking?

Have you all been discussing how China's handing us Obama's impeachment on a plate? I think they realized it's nicer doing business with us than having a communist-in-chief messing up the money flows, so someone very smart in the PRC let slip about the quid pro quo - the stand-down on going after Chinese spies agreement.

[pagar]

Hope everyone is just sleeping late.

At American Thinker, Jack Cashill has come up with new thoughts on where Obama came
Link

"." If this were the case, it would have caused far less societal stress for Ann Dunham to assume maternity of her little brother than for Stanley Dunham to assume paternity of his son. "

No comments have been posted yet on the article at American Thinker.

It's hard to believe that every MSM leftist is worried that there is a story behind the birth of a son to Sarah Palin, but no one dares question the made for politics story of the origins of Obama.

[clarice]

wow..Jack Cashill's always intriguing.

[Neo]

Since Obama inaugural, Republicans have had to face a series of "crap sandwiches" that they have been presented. HCR was just one more.

Besides if HCR had passed the afternoon of the Obama inaugural, Melanie Shouse would still have to wait 3 more years for the benefits part of the legislation to kick in, while her "friends," the Democrats collected (and spent) taxes and said there was nothing they could do.

[Soylent Red]

Not to speak ill of the dead, but...

As more of the story comes out, it seems to me that a person who would ask to be buried in an Obama t-shirt (not a suit with an Obama pin, not with a 5 x 7 glossy of Dear Leader clutched between her finger) might just be teh crazy enough to martyr herself for the proposition that "Government Owes Everything To Everyone".

"Embalm, cremate, bury at sea. Take no chances!"

The Ripley Solution

[Janet]

pagar...Obama's whole bio is sketchy. The latest WaPo article about how Obama is middle class couldn't even get his bio correct (the bio according to Obama in Dreams).
At the Nat'l Prayer breakfast Obama himself warned us away from questioning his faith or his birth.
His statement makes me question his faith, his birth, and his whole bio even more.
God bless Jack Cashill for at least bothering to ask serious questions.

[Fritz]

It would be interesting to compare BO's appearance with those of his numerous African half-brothers and sisters. I have always been curious as to why BO seems so totally incurious about his African siblings if they are truly his family.

[Войска ПВО]

I am deeply sorry to hear of this woman's plight. May her spirit rest in peace. However, in being cremated in her Obama t-shirt, I fear she will not be the last person burned by this president before he leaves office.

[ARC: Brian]

And with this prize-winning pre-existing condition, I had no opportunity to seek a better private health plan, as I was now shut out of the market.

She wasn't shut out of any market. There is no market for insurance to cover for an already forgone conclusion. The price on such a policy, would, by definition, cost more than the treatment.

She's a moocher, who would rather have the rest of the country forgo their own personal dreams so that she could fulfill her dream (owning a store).

That it takes a blogger to point to these facts, instead of the MSM, is a crime.

[Cecil Turner]

And with this prize-winning pre-existing condition . . .

That whole paragraph makes no sense. There was actually nothing wrong with a high-deductible health plan; breast cancer is the metaphorical bus. Medicaid didn't save her life, nor could any treatment at that point. And her health care plan had little or nothing to do with her late diagnosis, since no plan provides for screenings as early as she needed (35?). Her touted public health plans propose checking even later.

In short, this case has absolutely nothing to do with the proposed fixes.

[Ignatz]

--P.S. I think once you are diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer your are eligible for SSDI (but I am not certain about that).--

Wanted to thank Gerry Olsen for pointing that out.

[J. Peden]

"I had to take the ultimate risk with my health in order to chase the American Dream..."

I hereby nominate Ms. Shouse for a Darwin award. Had she gotten checked quickly, she would have had a good chance for a long life and for still chasing the American Dream, but, as she admits, she instead traded it for an almost certain death and obviously not chasing the American Dream. Unsurprisingly, she makes no sense anywhere else either, but instead sounds like the average, and indeed uniformly "equal" Progressive.

[Terry in Georgia]

Sean Hannity just did a (partial) report on this story. He got thru the initial claim, but suggested next time the President do some research and he could at least report her name.

I waited for the rest of the story (figuring Hannity surely had the whole thing) but that was all he gave. Sheesh, two days after you and still only the basic report. Not only are you more thorough and complete than MSM and Cable, they don't even get it complete even late.