Do You Think Gov. Brewer Should Reinstate Transplant Coverage in Arizona?

Remember those “death panels” that Sarah Palin made up last year when she was trying to scare voters about President Obama’s health care plan? Well, it looks like they may actually come true now, except they don’t have anything to do with ObamaCare, or Democrats.

They’re the work of Arizona’s Republican Governor Jan Brewer, best known for her rabid support of the controversial anti-immigration bill SB 1070. The Huffington Post reported that Brewer is facing intense criticism because of a provision of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), a budget-cutting proposal that has leaves some patients without access to medical transplant coverage, including such life-saving procedures as heart and liver transplants.

The governor has declined requests to hold a special session called for by Democrats to reinstate the transplant coverage that the Tucson Weekly reported was dropped due to cuts to Medicaid funding that were “forced through by Gov. Jan Brewer and legislative Republicans in an effort to bring down state spending.”

The cuts were an attempt to bridge a budget shortfall that tops $1 billion and also included the elimination of KidsCare, which provides health insurance to children in households that earn up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, making Arizona the first state in the nation to eliminate the program.

Republican State Senator Frank Antenori, who voted in favor of the cuts, told the Weekly that the transplant situation was “a tragedy,” but said it’s exactly the reason why you “don’t want government in the health-care business … If we had made health insurance really affordable and expanded competition so that it would come in line with the costs of car insurance, a lot of this wouldn't happen...”

Brewer says the cuts to transplant coverage will stay in place unless state legislators give her a solution for filling the $1 billion budget gap.

"This ‘Brewercare’ has set up real death panels here in Arizona and it is outrageous and disgusting," Arizona Democratic state Rep. Anna Tovar, who had bone marrow transplants in 2001 and 2002 to treat leukemia, told The Associated Press.

There may be a silver lining to this dire situation in the state that ranks below average on a list of the healthiest and least healthy states in the country, though. The Arizona Republic reported on Wednesday that as a result of the coverage of the transplant cuts, Arizona patients registered in the National Transplant Assistance Fund have seen a surge of donations to fund their surgeries.