(Second thoughts on this post– The left blogosphere has picked this story up, but the source is the Washington Times, a hard-right organ of Reverend Moon’s Unification Church. The story concerns cancellation of private insurance for a disabled man, and the family considers the alternative, Medicaide, to be a death sentence. I’m not buying that at all. However, I can understand their desire to maintain the home care that has kept Ian Pearl well, and I support them in that. Expensive? Yes, but so is institutionalization. Home care is the future of health care, if we want to keep costs down and give people autonomy and choice.)

Another Terry Schiavo? Don’t count on Senator Bill Frist to ride to the rescue. Frist doesn’t need to divine from video that Ian Pearl is neurologically intact. Ian Pearl can speak for himself.

Rather than continue to pay for Ian Pearl’s million dollar medical treatments, one insurance company has decided to end certain lines of coverage altogether, reports William Ehart of the Washington Times. Pearl, 37, suffers from Type II spinal muscular dystrophy, and has been using a wheel chair and connected to a breathing tube for most of his life. Patients with his type of muscular dystrophy rarely live past infancy, but Peal credits his vitality to the care he has received all his life.

On December 1 his insurer, Guardian, is discontinuing a portion of its coverage, which will effectively kill him. Without his extensive coverage Pearl will be admitted to a state hospital under Medicaid, with less treatment. Pearl’s mother said that in a state hospital her son would be lucky to live more than a few weeks. Pearl’s plan, as of now, covers 24-hour home nursing, which Medicaid, and the vast majority of plans, do not.

Ian Pearl’s treatment is expensive. And I’m very concerned about the assertion that people who go into the state hospital just die. If the state hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida is that bad then there are many more Ian Pearls who are not lucky enough to have fierce advocates.

Where does the money go? I’ve never met Ian Pearl, but I do work in home care so I can give an educated opinion. A better one than Doctor Senator Frist gave in the Schiavo case. I’m betting that Ian Pearl has home health aides who get him out of bed, wash him and keep him from getting bedsores. I’m betting that Ian Pearl has nurses who can manage his tracheostomy, visible in his photo, and all the breathing equipment that keeps him alive. They don’t teach that in nursing school, it’s usually learned on the job in Med Surg or ICU. I’m guessing that Ian Pearl has some very skilled nurses on his team.

So somewhere in Fort Lauderdale tonight there are some very unhappy medical workers who have kept Ian alive and well for years. They might be terminated. For what?

“This is attempted murder” said his father, Warren, “the insurance companies are cheating in order to have obscene profits.” Last year Guardian reported $437 million profits, up 50 percent from 2007.

Interesting that this story was reported by the Washington Times. A newspaper that was bought by Reverend Moon. A newspaper with an agenda, to be carried out in this world or the next, who knows? The coverage of this story on left-wing sites may be another case of politics making strange bedfellows.

The Washington Times was a good friend of the Bush administration, but they are eternally an organ of the Unification Church. I have no idea what the Times is up to.

I’ve observed that it’s easier to love those who are silently unborn than those who are not only born, but in need of expensive care to keep them in this world. Hey, a lot of wingers don’t even support prenatal and pediatric care. Every time I drive past those ‘Prolife Across America’ billboards, with the cute babies, I think about the Rhode Island children who could be insured if the governor made it a priority.

All Ian Pearl wants is to live with some security and dignity. And the money spent doesn’t go down the drain. It goes into wages for the workers who care for him, and they pay taxes, buy groceries and care for their families. This kind of hands-on labor can’t be outsourced, so it cycles back into our economy.

But a young guy with a goatee, who can speak for himself is a problem, isn’t he? Not as much of a blank slate as poor Terry Shiavo, whose autopsy revealed an atrophied brain. This is a man who is alert and oriented and can speak for himself. What will we do for him?

A public option for a Medicare-type insurance that will use less money in administration and won’t drop you arbitrarily would give some security to patients like Ian Pearl. Some of the Tea Party believe that we should let God decide. And God’s agents on Earth are named Tenet and Blue Cross. But they have a vital interest in unloading people who really need the help. So what is left?

What is left is ‘We the People’ deciding to walk the walk when we say that we value life. Ian Pearl’s condition was not predictable or preventable, but with financial support he can manage. Taking care of our own requires investing locally, in a way that cycles back into the local economy. Letting the insurance corporations do their financial triage is a disgrace and a waste. Let them reform, or get out of the way for a better system.

More on this, with a picture of Ian Pearl, here.