Well, here's how the "free market" works when the lives of cancer patients are at stake, and in particular the lives on non-Hodgin's Lymphoma patients for which two miracle drugs exist which can save lives, if (and how big an if that is will be demonstrated shortly) those afflicted with this killer disease can get access to them (via the New York Times):

After an hourlong infusion, Linda Stephens, 58, has been cancer-free for seven years. Dan Wheeler, three years. Betsy de Parry, five years. Before treatment, all three had late-stage non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system, and a grim prognosis.

All three recovered after a single dose of Bexxar or Zevalin, both federally approved drugs for lymphoma. And all three can count themselves as lucky. [...]

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is the fifth most common cancer in the United States, with 60,000 new cases and almost 20,000 deaths a year. But fewer than 2,000 patients received Bexxar or Zevalin last year, only about 10 percent of those who are suitable candidates for the drugs.

“Both Zevalin and Bexxar are very good products,” said Dr. Oliver W. Press, a professor at the University of Washington and chairman of the scientific advisory board of the Lymphoma Research Foundation. “It is astounding and disappointing” that they are used so little. The reasons that more patients don’t get these drugs reflect the market-driven forces that can distort medical decisions, Dr. Press and other experts on lymphoma treatment say. A result can be high costs but not necessarily the best care.

Michael Moore, thank you. I doubt the New York Times would have bothered to cover this story until Sicko was released. And this report demonstrates how accurate and timely Sicko has proven to be.

Imagine that there was a magic potion that could save your life from certain death, but before you could get it you had to spin a wheel of fortune, in which only one spot in 10 awarded you the prize of taking the potion and staying alive. It's horrific to even consider such a hypothetical, true? Yet that is exactly the position in which non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma patients find themselves, hoping and praying that they will be among the lucky few to be awarded the prize of these drug treatments, a prize that very well could be the difference between their life or their death. (cont.)