Bob Iritano died Thursday. He had cancer. He was 51 years old.
And the reason Bob Iritano died this particular Thursday - instead of another Thursday, say, a year or two from this past Thursday - was because some corporate bureaucrats - some death panel - at Health Net decided several more months of Bob Iritano's life wasn't worth $20,000.
Well, I mean, not this time, it wasn't worth it, anyway. Sure, it used to be, a few years ago, until Bob Iritano had the choots-paw to start, you know, actually living longer as a result of receiving treatments that cost $20,000 apiece. But once it became clear that Bob Iritano would actually live longer as a result of those $20,000 treatments, well, then, those treatments that didn't used to be "investigational" suddenly became "investigational," and Bob Iritano's life wasn't worth spending the money on anymore.
Because the longer Bob Iritano actually, you know, lived, the more money it would cost Health Net to pay for the treatments that were keeping him alive.
And, even though Health Net had decided that those treatments were now suddenly "investigational," they just as suddenly became authorized treatments when Bob Iritano and his wife contacted LA Times columnist David Lazarus, and the story of exactly how much Health Net thought Bob Iritano's life was worth hit the newspapers and the TV.
Then, suddenly, Bob Iritano's life once again was worth the $20,000.
And then Health Net's death panel changed its mind again, so then Bob Iritano's life wasn't worth the $20,000.
Huh.
Anyway - death panels.
Also, too.