EUGENE, Ore. — Barbara Wagner discovered recently her state would not cover chemotherapy for her lung cancer but would underwrite her death by physician-assisted suicide.
Wagner, 64, received notice in May that the Oregon Health Plan, which provides health-care coverage for about 380,000 low-income residents monthly, had refused to cover the drug prescribed by her oncologist when her cancer recurred, according to The Register-Guard in Eugene, Ore.
She was told, however, it would cover assisted suicide as part of palliative, or pain-relief, care.
The notification that the health plan would cover assisted suicide especially disturbed Wagner. "To say to someone, we’ll pay for you to die, but not pay for you to live — it’s cruel," she said. "I get angry. Who do they think they are?"
Fortunately for Wagner, another institution came to her aid. A representative of the pharmaceutical firm that markets the drug she had been prescribed called June 2 to tell her the company would provide it without charge.
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