One of the best and most important speeches of either national convention came from a young lady named Natalie Harp, a onetime bone cancer patient who quite appropriately praised President Trump for signing the “right to try” legislation that allowed her to take the experimental medicine that saved her life.
The truth is that under Trump, a combination of legislation and administrative action by Trump’s appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services has improved American healthcare in numerous ways. As Harp noted in her speech, these Trump administration actions have sped up the approval process for generic drugs, improved price transparency, provided more insurance options than the regimented choices mandated by former President Barack Obama, and, as noted, allowed the “right to try.”
Harp’s tale is gripping.
“I was told I was a burden to my family and to my country and that by choosing to die early, I’d actually be saving the lives of others by preserving resources for them rather than wasting them on a lost cause, like myself,” she said.
That was the essence of the soulless message pushed by the Obamacare architect, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, who posited that end-of-life healthcare rationing was an actual good. It is a consistent message from the Democratic Party’s left wing, and it is, well, evil.
Harp continued, “And when I failed the chemotherapies on the market, no one wanted me in their clinical trials — I’d make them look bad. They didn’t give me the right to try experimental treatments, Mr. President. You did.”
The “right to try” is a new provision in law that allows patients who otherwise are terminally ill to try experimental treatments that haven’t fully made it through clinical trials. Ordinarily, there is good reason to prohibit nonterminal patients from trying experimental drugs because, without full trials, there is a chance those drugs could do more harm than good. With patients who have run out of “approved” options, though, and who will die without a medical miracle, the right to try can represent the only possible way to save their lives.
That’s what happened with Harp. So far, the experimental drugs have worked for her. She made a great impression on stage, looking hale and healthy. And she is absolutely right about the consistent effort by the Trump administration to give patients more options, whether for basic insurance and medicines or for absolutely lifesaving treatments, such as the one Harp received.
Trump is far from my cup of tea. But compared to the deadly cup of hemlock that leftist healthcare plans deliver, his administration has provided a loving cup of hope to Harp and many others. Trump deserves more credit for this than he is getting.
