Sick!!! Republicans Deny Oral Chemo Therapy because they don't believe in "mandates."

The Republicans casual disregard for people needing oral chemo therapy has now reached a grotesque level of cruelty. Republicans refuse to mandate it for purely ideological reasons, ignoring the relief of pain and the lack of side effects using the oral drug.

Again, they don’t believe in mandates. That’s the actual reason.

jsonline: More than two-thirds of GOP senators and four-fifths of the state Senate now publicly support a bipartisan bill to help cancer patients get critical treatments, but the measure is still being blocked by the head of that house. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said … it (is) not because his brother is lobbying on behalf of influential insurers to kill the bill … at least 13 of the 18 Republicans in the state Senate and all 15 Democrats have taken a public stance in support of the legislation.

The Horror of Mandates, the need for Rationing:

Two conservative GOP senators have come out vocally against the bill, Paul Farrow of the Village of Pewaukee and Leah Vukmir of Wauwatosa. "I have a consistent record of opposing insurance mandates," Vukmir said in a statement.

Farrow expressed similar concerns. "It's a mandate," he said. "If we're going to say we're going to mandate this one area, what's the next area we're going to mandate?"

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) opposes the bill … Vos said "In the past, I have not voted for any mandates that would increase the cost of insurance plans in the private sector that's already too expensive.

Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch needed oral chemo therapy once, paid for through hubby Rep. Joel Kleefisch’s taxpayer provided insurance. Rebecca now believes the free market should decide. Excuse me, but isn't it the free market that’s denying patients normal coverage now, requiring the state to step in?

On WKOW's Capitol City Sunday, Greg Neumann talked to Paul Westrick, a cancer survivor who has lobbied the legislature to favor the bill on behalf of the Wisconsin chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society: