Sen. Dodd: His Cancer Not on “Exhibit” in Health Care Debate
EmailABC News’ Z. Byron Wolf and Jon Karl Report: The man who stepped into Sen. Ted Kennedy’s shoes to shepherd health reform through the HELP Committee when Kennedy fell ill with brain cancer, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Ct., will hold a press conference at 2pm in Connecticut to discuss a “personal health issue.”
His hometown paper reports he has early stage prostate cancer.
The Courant reports that Dodd will undergo surgery in August, during the Senate’s summer recess, and return to the health care overhaul effort in September.
UPDATE: A source close to Dodd says the cancer was caught early: "The condition was caught extremely early; the procedure will be as routine as it can be; he’ll be down, out of commission for just two or three; his health is otherwise superb; this in no way whatsoever affects his re-election plans."
UPDATE II: At the press conference, Dodd said he will opt for surgery to remove his prostate at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, shortly after the Senate recesses next week. He will stay a day in the hospital and recuperate in Connecticut.
He said that though he knew about his illness in June after a biopsy confirmed the disease, he did not reveal the news because he did not want to be “on exhibit, necessarily,” during the health care mark-up in the Senate.
“It’s not about me. It’s about people without health care or the under-insured,” he said.
“As a member of Congress, I have a very good health care plan. My health care plan allows me to get paid an annual physical. Because of annual physical, I was able to detect this prostate cancer very early. . . . The benefit of being in Congress isn’t available to everyone,” Dodd said.
“And I’m fortunate as a member of Congress is to have those benefits. And so one of the things we’re fighting for, we’ll continue to fight for, is to get this national health care reform effort passed in the Congress. I know it’s controversial, it’s hard. . . . . While things fell apart a bit this week, I’m confident we’ll get back on track again,” he said.
He said recovery will last two to three weeks, and then he will be back on his feet, and on the trail.
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Lucky for him he has a great health care plan, he’ll get top of the line treatment. If he was on the plan that he and Obama wants to put us on, he would be told that he is too old and that he is not worth spending the money on.
Posted by: LeftyNOT | July 31, 2009, 12:55 pm 12:55 pm
Hum…Getting surgery so fast? Maybe he should try the Canadian System. Afterall, it’s far superior to ours. Oops, I forgot, at his age, he’ll have to get in line and wait…9, 12, 18 months. Sure, he’ll take advantage of lower than market rate mortgages and superior healthcare, claim to be working for ‘We the people’.
Reality; his true mind set is ‘let them eat cake’.
I do wish him well and a speedy recovery, I’m just sick of the hypocrisy from our Congressional leaders.
Posted by: Concerned Citizen | July 31, 2009, 1:00 pm 1:00 pm
i feel bad for him and his family. hopefully, the surgery is successful.
on a side note, i wonder when the ‘it’s bush’s fault’ statements will fly…you know, obama’s great preventative healthcare plan could have made it to where this was caught even earlier!
Posted by: stdntDrvr | July 31, 2009, 1:08 pm 1:08 pm
He should go to Canada or Europe to get his treatment since their healthcare is so much better than ours! I wish him well with his cancer treatment, but I can’t help but wonder how terrified he would be if he had to be treated under a Universal Health Care system knowing that he was 16% more likely to die from his cancer? The timing is quite ironic!
Posted by: Curt | July 31, 2009, 1:19 pm 1:19 pm
Let’s see, 65, prostate cancer. Sounds like a perfect candidate for ‘end of life’ counseling? Oh, wait. He’s one of the ruling elite! Never mind.
Posted by: LongT | July 31, 2009, 1:19 pm 1:19 pm
stdntDrvr (1:08 PM); Caught even earlier!? While waiting for the paperwork to go through and multilevel evaluation and prioritizing? That’s a good one. You think Obama’s plan provides for preventive prostate exams for the nearly 65+ million males over the age of 50? Ha! Ha!
Posted by: LongT | July 31, 2009, 1:26 pm 1:26 pm
No Jim, many of us are looking past the rhetoric and genaralities of Mr. Obama and our current gov’t leaders and reading the bill. The government is always looking to gain more power and some of us realize this and refuse to allow it to happen. There are alternatives to letting the government stick its tentacles in our lives that can still fix the healthcare system.
Posted by: Curt | July 31, 2009, 1:36 pm 1:36 pm
Perhaps if he lived here in the UK under the wonderful National Health Service he would find that his 2 week wait for surgery would be 9 to 12 months. Oh, I forgot – even if the average American will be burdened by their version of the NHS, thanks to Senator Dodd, no Congress-person need worry as they are exempt!
Posted by: EM Lord, Oxford UK | July 31, 2009, 1:43 pm 1:43 pm
LeftyNOT – you have obviously been listening only to rhetoric. The only way Dodd would be turned down for coverage is if he were to try to buy insurance in the current marketplace.
Posted by: Eric | July 31, 2009, 1:44 pm 1:44 pm
This guy has done a lot of damage while in Washington, he made unapologetically his own contribution to the collapse. He has been a cheap labor advocate in every imaginable way supporting the inflow of cheap labor to displace Americans workers. His advocacy has been steadfast even in what likely to be the greatest downturn since the great depression. His support of the illegals extends to the encouragement of employers to hire illegals (by not requiring use of E-Verify). Now he has been hit with charges that he knowingly accepted below market VIP mortgages from lenders. Senator Dodd use the Cancer as an excuse and resign.
Posted by: merchantilist | July 31, 2009, 1:44 pm 1:44 pm
Eric (1:44 PM); Yeah, probably true, but he doesn’t have to worry about a pre-existing condition clause because he already has the best coverage taxpayer money can buy.
Posted by: LongT | July 31, 2009, 1:55 pm 1:55 pm
Geeze…. you people really drank the kool-aid from your “business as usual” leadership! Congrats on proving just how stupid the majority of U.S. citizens actually are! I say tax the stupid….. apparently it’s a never-ending resource!
Posted by: stacy | July 31, 2009, 2:08 pm 2:08 pm
“Countrywide Sweetheart Deal” Dodd will get the finest medical care taxpayer money can provide – all the while he is trying to ram socialized, rationed healthcare up our ###.
Posted by: ALEX H. | July 31, 2009, 2:09 pm 2:09 pm
LongT
did you not catch the sarcasm?
Posted by: stdntDrvr | July 31, 2009, 2:12 pm 2:12 pm
Dodd should be in jail or at least not in office!
Posted by: Me | July 31, 2009, 2:25 pm 2:25 pm
stdntDrvr; Oh! I guess I did miss your joke. Sorry.
Posted by: LongT | July 31, 2009, 2:31 pm 2:31 pm
I had prostate surgery 7-8 years ago. I wasn’t able to resume normal activity for over a month. I was “Livin’ the Life of Lortab” for the first three weeks after the surgery.
Dodd’s lying to us and to himself if he thinks he’s gonna bounce right back.
I will be 75 tomorrow morning and am STILL in better shape physically than Dodd. I say only physically, because morally, he’s always been snake in the grass. He has no morals.
He’d better get a second opinion and a few more biopsies just to make sure. Those are sooooo much fun.
Posted by: Fritz Steiner | July 31, 2009, 2:51 pm 2:51 pm
As much as I hate what he did to this country, no one should have to suffer with cancer. My younger brother went through chemo, and is doing fine now. I wish the same for Dodd.
Posted by: mojo | July 31, 2009, 3:13 pm 3:13 pm
Thank God Sen. Dodd has an excellent health care plan that provides for an annual physical.
Just think of the millions of Americans without good health care coverage who would not have learned about the cancer until it was too late.
Single Payer health care for all Americans NOW! Get it done Congress!
Posted by: Bill Fisher | July 31, 2009, 4:07 pm 4:07 pm
Wow, it looks like Obama sure has a high rating on healthcare from posters and those who have read this story. And this isnt Fox News!
NOT!
Posted by: Luke | July 31, 2009, 4:11 pm 4:11 pm
I went through it 5 years ago. Good Luck Senator Dodd.
Posted by: jamescbuilder | July 31, 2009, 4:37 pm 4:37 pm
Please people in his district call him, send him emails, go to his office, do whatever and tell this bum to go to canada for his health care!!!! Say how disgusted you are with all this
Posted by: Vote the Bums Out | July 31, 2009, 5:23 pm 5:23 pm
My dear Mr. President and Sen. Dodd I wonder I f you and your dear Families will be on this scary plan? May you or a sick realitive should try the new plan out for a time and let us know how the plan will work on you cancer stricken. F rom what we have learned people die waiting or cannot be helped after waiting so long. It really is funny how some not all welfare people get the same medicial care as tax paying people. Also how come if you workn for an employer who doesnot give benifits you cannot get insurance or if they do it is to much money . Maybe I should tell my son to go on welfare, and sit on yhe curb all day and eat on food stamps or maybe we shoul all do that and be equal. I think all these dreamers shoul do us all a favor and get a real life with all of us and get off the gravey train. Stop giving the jobs to your realitive and join us on the bread line.
Posted by: mary | July 31, 2009, 5:26 pm 5:26 pm
As a Ind that voted Obama I hope Dodd gets well but also pray he doesn’t get elected. We need to start voting these liars and he is a proven one, out of office. Unfortunately people in this country will vote because he has a nice smile or he is just a member of their party. Right and best for the country is way down the list for many.
Posted by: CAW | July 31, 2009, 6:28 pm 6:28 pm
Now, if Chris Dodd were a real statesman, he would say, “I am 65 and it is not cost effective to operate on my prostate cancer. Put in a younger person and I will go ahead and die and save my country the expense of an operation.”
At least that is what his health care plans are for everyone else.
Posted by: Gale | July 31, 2009, 11:07 pm 11:07 pm
Well..good luck Mr Dodd. No healthcare plan will keep you from leaving this world.
Posted by: Frank | August 1, 2009, 12:02 am 12:02 am
This guy has caused with the help of Pelosi, Schumer and barney the blowhard the collapse of the financial industry by voting NO to oversee fanny and freddie and yes to giving everyone a mortgage when they couldn’t afford it !!! So let’s use him as a guinea pig for the BO healthcare and tell him NO for surgery and send in the end of life counselor!!!!!!!
Posted by: lovingpolitics | August 1, 2009, 11:18 am 11:18 am