NAPERVILLE — Kudos to Charles Krauthammer. Before his enlightening column on Feb. 17 ("Congressional compassion just cheap politics," Op-Ed), I never knew that I had a "politically correct condition." Now I know that my breast cancer is not only a potentially fatal, physically disfiguring, emotionally debilitating disease but also the newest political darling. That, according to Mr. Krauthammer, must be the reason women get to stay in the hospital for (wow) "an indefinite postmastectomy stay."
This upsets Mr. Krauthammer's innate sense of fairness. Why, he asks, do mastectomy patients rate more compassion than burn victims or diabetic amputees, for example? No reason, except that as far as I know, HMOs have not (yet) tried to treat the latter on a drive-by, outpatient basis.