The spirit is willing, but alas, the details are weak

Posted Aug. 11, 2009 at 8:53 PM

http://exurbanleague.com/2009/08/11/the-spirit-is-willing-but-the-details-are-weak...

Investors Business Daily scores an own goal by stating that a single-payer system would have killed off Stephen Hawking.

Whoops.

But they had the right idea.

After developing renal cancer, and having one kidney removed in 2007, (Tony) Wilson wished to take the drug sunitinib (aka Sutent), the £3,500 per month cost of which was not funded by the Manchester Primary Care Trust. He was turned down by the NHS, while patients being treated alongside him at the Christie Hospital and living just a few miles away in Cheshire received funding for the medication, for other conditions.

Wilson said: "This [Sutent] is my only real option. It is not a cure but can hold the cancer back, so I will probably be on it until I die ... When they said I would have to pay £3,500 for the drugs each month, I thought where am I going to find the money? I'm the one person in this industry who famously has never made any money ... I used to say some people make money and some make history, which is very funny until you find you can't afford to keep yourself alive ... I've never paid for private healthcare because I'm a socialist. Now I find you can get tummy tucks and cosmetic surgery on the NHS but not the drugs I need to stay alive. It is a scandal."

Tony Wilson was a television presenter, owner of the legendary Haçienda nightclub and founder of Factory Records, home to Joy Division, New Order, The Happy Mondays and lots more Madchester bands.

Tony Wilson believed in socialized medicine. And socialized medicine killed him.