more on lupus and why Nikki's condition doesn't endorse reform

Quality of life and life expectancy for lupus patients varies greatly, based on the severity of the illness and how long the disease is present before diagnosis and treatment begins. The extent to which the disease has progressed at the onset of treatment greatly impacts the life expectancy for lupus patients. When caught early, lupus can be treated and brought largely into remission before the occurrence of serious organ damage. However, left untreated over a period of time, lupus can lead to serious problems with vital internal organs, including the brain, heart, lungs, and kidneys. Such damage can severely compromise the life expectancy for lupus patients.
~ from Lupus4You.com

The Lupus4You webpage makes it sound as if Nikki was receiving the proper medical attention when she was diagnosed at the age of 21 then she should have never had to leave her job in the first place and never gotten sick. Lupus sounds like it's easy to live with, very manageable, like one of those "extinct" diseases. The drug that is commonly used to treat the disease, Prednisone, appears to be easy to obtain online for as little as $40 for 180 pills of a "standard dose" ($177 at the Canadian website i saw).

There must be a missing piece of the puzzle in this story. Was Nikki allergic to the drugs? Undiagnosed (if so, why would healthcare companies refuse to cover her)? In fact, why would they refuse to cover her at all when this preexisting condition seems to be very easy and cheap to treat??? It sounds like Nikki ignored a condition that she knew she had and killed herself. Of course that is sad, but it is not the government's job to protect us from ourselves, and the healthcare industry cannot force us to follow the best course of treatment, and the medical industry cannot guarantee that such a course of treatment is the best for every individual.

Sure, it's easy to just demonize healthcare industry, but blaming the party that didn't cause the problem and isn't the problem isn't a solution. The problem is the government. We do not need healthcare reform, we need the laws making it so easy to sue doctors for emotional trauma when they did everything they could but couldn't help to stop. Did Nikki's parents sue the doctors? i bet they did, when she waited so long to get help that there was nothing they could do for her, all the surgeries were to fix damage that her own body did to itself and that could have been prevented. That's not the doctor's fault. It's not the Healthcare industry's fault that she refused to seek care. It's painful, but then the truth often is. Let blame lie where it belongs, not on the big bad wolf.