American Cancer Society Becomes Another P.A.C.

When is a 501 C-3 organization NOT a 501 C-3 organization? When it takes up the cause of one of the key issues of a political party. The American Cancer Society is airing a new television spot that sounds like it was written by a strategist for the party of Democrats. The new barrage of ads is costing $15 million dollars; that's $15 million dollars of contributors donations that those contributors assume is going to research for fighting cancer. I think that is important to know.

In fairness I am not certain that what follows is from the ad verbatim, but it is from their web site and is very similar to the content of one of their new ads.

"47 million Americans do not have health care--Everyone should have access to quality cancer care. Fighting cancer is tough enough without having to fight for the care you need; but many uninsured and underinsured Americans are facing this difficult situation. Winning the fight against cancer depends on improving access to quality cancer care."

I sympathize with the issue. That something fairly drastic needs to be done concerning the absurd cost of health care in this country is a given. But heaven forbid that Washington should become even more entangled with this issue than it already is.

Frankly, it seems that many of the challenges with costs find their genesis on two fronts. The first is our legal system and tort law; the second is governmental regulation.

While nationalized health care sounds good on the surface, all we have to do is look to other countries where they have such a system and the evaluation is clear. It is not working well--at all. They may have "equal access" in Canada but it is access to a leveled playing field that is built on the land-filled cesspool of bureaucratic waste and the nastiness of that waste is percolating to the top.

Health care is so restricted and poor in Canada that Canadians are waiting in line to get into our country for needed treatments and operations. Is that really the solution we want?

The American Cancer Society needs to stick to research and drop its Political Action Committee approach or at least register with IRS and inform its contributors where their contributions are going.