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Cancer treatments cut Prostate patients on wait list By Clea Benson and John Hill -- Bee Staff Writers Published 2:15 a.m. PST Saturday, January 31, 2004 Dr. Mark Litwin got the call from California health officials the day after Christmas: Money covering prostate cancer treatment for low-income men had been slashed from the state budget. Litwin, a UCLA urologist who coordinates the statewide treatment program, said he was told to stop enrolling new patients immediately. On Dec. 27, the program began turning away uninsured men who had been diagnosed with cancer, placing them on a waiting list instead. This week, Raoul Campos, a patient on the list, died of prostate cancer, Litwin said. Campos, a 54-year-old parking attendant from Los Angeles, had an advanced case of the disease. But, said Litwin, "Certainly, with hormone therapy, we could have delayed his death." As debate heats up over Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget proposals to cap and cut social services, the governor already has used his unilateral authority to drastically reduce funding for some disease research and the prostate cancer treatment program. And, like Campos, Californians already are being affected. The cuts were first approved in late October during the administration of former Gov. Gray Davis -- 22 days before Schwarzenegger took office. The new administration finalized the decision Dec. 22 -- more than a month after Schwarzenegger took over. Recipients were notified in late December that funds in this year's budget had been virtually eliminated, effective immediately. Schwarzenegger's staff blamed the cuts on the Davis administration. "The budget levels and the policies were what we inherited when we took office," said Finance Department spokesman H.D. Palmer. But Steve Peace, who was finance director under Davis, disagreed. He said the Davis administration delayed putting the cuts into effect so that the incoming governor could reconsider them if he chose. "It doesn't matter what was initiated when," Peace said. "They can change things. ... It's totally in their hands." Though Schwarzenegger said this week that he would soon release details, both administrations have maintained months of public silence on how the shrinking of the state bureaucracy has affected services. It remains unclear exactly what the governor plans to make public. Both have denied a request The Bee made through the state Public Records Act for documents revealing the impact of cuts on the services the state provides -- a category that would include the health department reductions. Under the Davis administration, the Department of Health Services in November declined to answer The Bee's request for information on programs that would be curtailed. Officials said all such detail had to come from the Department of Finance, which also declined to provide information. The cuts were enacted under new authority the Legislature granted the governor last year to make budget reductions without lawmakers' approval. Lawmakers authorized the governor to reduce general fund spending by $1.1 billion by cutting staff and operations. The Department of Health Services, which uses some of the funds in its personnel and operations account to pay for some contracts, elected to cut contracts for the prostate cancer program and research on birth defects, cancer, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis and other diseases. Effects are widespread. Dr. Richard Hector, director of an effort to find a vaccine for valley fever, a fungal infection of the lungs, said his program had lost all of its state funding of $750,000. Hector said the cut would hurt the Valley Fever Vaccine Project's efforts to begin testing a promising vaccine in humans. The Improving Access, Counseling and Treatment for Californians with Prostate Cancer program, known as IMPACT, lost about $4 million, leaving it with $700,000. Laura Baybridge, the administrator, said health department officials have given her until next week to come up with a "worst-case scenario" plan that would end all treatment by June for the roughly 300 men who are currently enrolled in the program. Among them is John Hood, 57, of Sacramento, a self-described "old biker guy" and recovering alcoholic who cares for his 87-year-old mother. Hood, whose cancer has metastasized, said he depends on regular hormone shots to keep him alive. "When I was diagnosed with this, literally my prayer was, 'Lord, just keep me alive long enough to see my mom through, and then we can go,' " Hood said. "The IMPACT program literally saved my life." Palmer, of the finance department, said the state still spends billions of dollars to help counties provide medical care to the indigent. People who would have used IMPACT can use county health programs instead, he said. Jeannette Campos, the daughter of Raoul Campos, believes the IMPACT program could have eased her father's last days. He had been treated through the Los Angeles County health system, often waiting as long as 10 hours to be seen when he had an appointment. "It was really tough," Campos said. "I honestly think that through IMPACT it would have been different for him, because they do facilitate a lot of things. If you have the right treatment at the right time, things can be easier. I do not think my dad had that." In addition to cutting funds for disease research and treatment, the Department of Health Services also saved money by eliminating 582 of its 6,000 state jobs, said spokesman Robert Miller. It was unclear whether any state employees were laid off. Some of the positions were already vacant, and some employees whose jobs were cut were transferred to other positions in state government, Miller said. Peace, the Davis administration finance director, said he does not recall the specifics of the health department cuts. But the administration at that time was trying to minimize the pain of state worker layoffs, he said, so that it makes sense that the Department of Health Services would have proposed cutting contracts, and that the Department of Finance would have approved it. "It wouldn't surprise me," he said. "Everyone was trying to avoid layoffs, so it was common for plans to diminish the money going outside." Some legislators said they had not intended to sanction the elimination of research and treatment projects when they gave the governor the power to make cuts. The governor "does have the authority to make midyear cuts, but we did not imagine that he would end cancer programs," said Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica. "It may be that in our budget-control language this year we may not want to give the governor the authority" to make such decisions. Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, played a key role in establishing the Cancer Research Program, which had its funding cut from $3 million to $125,000. When the program began several years ago, it had a budget of $25 million. "There are certain things that ought to be protected from these cuts," Ortiz said. "It's really quite frightening and it's really quite sad about California having this ugly standard and basically backpedaling toward finding a cure for cancer." _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
