[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 167 (Monday, November 9, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11262-S11264]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HONORING COACH DAN CALLAHAN

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise today to honor an outstanding 
person in Illinois. His name is Dan Callahan. He is the head baseball 
coach at Southern Illinois University. I have known

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Dan since he was 3 years old. He is being honored by the Missouri 
Valley Conference, receiving their ``Most Courageous'' award.
  As Southern Illinois' baseball coach for the last 16 years, Callahan 
has led his team to more than 414 victories, making him the second 
winning-est coach in the school's history. Clearly, Coach Callahan has 
the talent to help his players perfect their skills as batters, 
pitchers and fielders.
  But he has also coached them on some of life's harder lessons, 
showing them what it means to live a life of persistence and 
commitment.
  You see, 3 years ago Coach Callahan was diagnosed with a form of 
melanoma, a cancer he is still battling today. After receiving his 
diagnosis, Callahan silently endured the rigors of his treatment while 
continuing to coach his team. He didn't miss a single game that season.
  When the next season rolled around, Callahan was still battling his 
illness. This time he faced more intense treatment, including a surgery 
that would take away part of his lower jaw.
  It was only then that he went public with his illness and continued 
to coach as much as his treatment would allow.
  While the surgery damaged Callahan's depth perception and hearing, 
he's still leading his baseball team today. He may not be able to 
demonstrate a fastball with the same intensity that he once had, but he 
has certainly shown his players how to face adversity and not give an 
inch.
  Last year, cancer or no cancer, Dan Callahan pushed through to record 
his 400th win at SIU and 550th victory as a NCAA Division I head coach.
  This year Coach Callahan will receive the Missouri Valley 
Conference's Most Courageous Award, an award that honors those that 
have demonstrated unusual courage in the face of personal illness, 
adversity or tragedy.
  Mr. President, I congratulate Coach Callahan on this award and wish 
him continued success in his recovery as well as another winning 
season. I salute his wife Stacy, his wonderful daughters Alexa and 
Carly, Dan's mom and dad, Gene and Anne Callahan, and the whole family 
who is joining him in this battle.

  Now--as a man used to say in Chicago in his radio show--for the rest 
of the story. One of the reasons Dan Callahan is alive today is because 
he has extraordinarily good medical care and health insurance. Because 
of that care, his oncologist recommended a special drug, a biologic 
drug. It is called Avastin. Avastin is a drug that is used to treat 
various forms of cancer but it has not been specifically tested for the 
treatment of cancer that Dan Callahan has. They tried it and it worked. 
It stopped the spread of the cancer.
  Dan, of course, was heartened and relieved, a young man with a young 
family. Having gone through chemotherapy and radiation, having faced 
surgery where his jaw was removed, having faced the disability and the 
discomfort, they found a drug. That is the good news.
  The bad news is that his insurance company, WellPoint, announced they 
would no longer pay for this drug. They decided it was an experimental 
drug and even though Dan Callahan's oncologist wrote to the company and 
said: It works, I can show that it works, it stopped the spread of the 
cancer, they said, no, we won't cover it. The drug costs $13,000 a 
month. I need not tell you that a coach at a university in southern 
Illinois doesn't make the kind of money that he can afford to pay for 
this drug. So his family and friends rallied and raised enough money, 
through their own savings and borrowing, to pay for two more 
administrations of the drug. Washington University in St. Louis decided 
they would make him part of a trial on this drug as well and added 
another couple treatments with this expensive drug. But December will 
be the last time Dan Callahan will be able to receive this drug because 
WellPoint, his health insurance company, has said that is the end, no 
more.
  You might wonder how WellPoint is doing as a company. They are doing 
very well. When it comes right down to it, it is one of the most 
profitable health insurance companies in America. It has the largest 
membership of any company in the United States. Its enrollment has 
fallen off a little bit but it didn't stop WellPoint from posting $730 
million in profits for the last 3 months.
  Despite their profitability and their strength in the stock market 
and the increase in the share value, they have decided they will no 
longer cover the use of this drug for Dan Callahan.
  If this is a story that sounds as if it involves something far away, 
not a part of our lives, stop and think twice. Each of us is one 
diagnosis or one illness away from what Dan Callahan is facing today in 
his battle with WellPoint. If these companies can turn us down for 
lifesaving drugs and treatments at these critical moments, then we are 
entirely at their mercy. If you cannot shop for another health 
insurance company because you have a history of cancer or preexisting 
illness, you are stuck. You are at the mercy of them.
  Is that as good as it gets in America? This still is the only 
industrialized country in the world where a person can literally die 
for lack of health insurance. That is what we face in this debate about 
health care reform. There are lots of opinions. I salute the House for 
passing the measure, sending it over here. We will hear those opinions 
expressed in the Senate in the weeks and months to come. As I consider 
this bill and what it means, I will be thinking about my friend, the 
coach at Southern Illinois University. I watched him start off as a 
little kid playing baseball and he turned out to be a terrific coach 
and, more than that, a terrific person. He is well deserving of his 
``Most Courageous'' award.
  The question now is will the Senate summon the courage to change this 
system and bring fairness to the system for the millions of Americans 
across this country who run the very risk of this very same challenge.
  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record an editorial 
from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch which was published yesterday relating 
to Dan Callahan's case.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                   [From stltoday.com, Nov. 6, 2009]

     Costly New Drugs: A Crisis for One Family, a Quandry for U.S.

                         (By: Editorial Board)

       It began with a little black spot on Dan Callahan's lower 
     lip. He didn't think it was anything to worry about. His 
     doctor thought it was cancer. The doctor was right. It was 
     neurotropic melanoma, a very rare--and very serious--type of 
     skin cancer. Even after the little black spot was 
     successfully removed six years ago, the cancer remained. And 
     grew.
       Last October, doctors at Barnes-Jewish Hospital began 
     chemotherapy. They used a three-drug cocktail that includes 
     Avastin, one of a new generation of anti-cancer drugs. It 
     works by blocking the formation of new blood vessels that 
     feed and nourish tumors. Until just a few years ago, that 
     kind of treatment was the stuff of science fiction.
       For patients battling advanced cancer like Mr. Callahan, 
     Avastin represents something as important as food or water: 
     It is time in a vial.
       This is what it cost: $13,686 per treatment. Mr. Callahan 
     has received six so far. Total price: $82,116. What's it 
     worth? That's a much more difficult question.
       About 10 miles up Illinois Route 13 east of Carbondale, 
     Ill.--just above Crab Orchard Lake--lies a little town called 
     Carterville. Mr. Callahan lives there with his wife, Stacy, 
     and two daughters. Alexa, 18, is a student at the University 
     of Illinois. Carly, 13, is in eighth grade.
       You can buy a three-bedroom house in Carterville for about 
     what Mr. Callahan's six infusions of Avastin cost. For about 
     $100,000--the price of a year's treatment--you can get a 
     classic bungalow with a screened-in front porch, a long, 
     shaded driveway and a two-bedroom cottage out back.
       The Callahans both have good jobs and health insurance. 
     Stacy works for a credit union. Dan is the head baseball 
     coach at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.
       Their insurance paid for minor surgery to remove the little 
     black spot from Mr. Callahan's lip. It paid for more 
     extensive surgery in April, when doctors removed the right 
     side of his jaw trying to stop the cancer's spread.
       And it paid for yet another operation in September, when 
     infection forced doctors to remove the prosthetic device they 
     had implanted to replace his missing jaw.
       But Mr. Callahan's insurance won't pay for Avastin.
       The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Avastin in 
     2004 to treat advanced colon cancer. Since then, it has been 
     cleared for breast and lung cancers. Doctors are free to 
     prescribe it for other forms of cancer. It is being tried on 
     30 other cancers, including melanoma, but those uses 
     technically are experimental.
       Because many experimental treatments don't pan out, 
     insurance companies in Illinois and most other states do not 
     have to

[[Page S11264]]

     cover them. The major health care bills pending in Congress 
     would not change that. For the first time, they allow generic 
     versions of so-called biologic drugs like Avastin. But only 
     after 12 years on the market, twice as long as other drugs.
       For thousands of Americans, including the Callahans, that 
     means many newer cancer drugs are out of reach. ``When they 
     told me the insurance wouldn't cover it, I said we'll just 
     pay for it ourselves,'' Mrs. Callahan recalled last week. 
     ``Then they told me how much it cost.''
       The Callahans scraped together about $27,000 from friends 
     and family members--enough to cover the cost of two 
     treatments. They got a grant from Washington University to 
     pay for four more. They are appealing the insurance company 
     denial, so far without success. The grant expires at the end 
     of December. After that? Mrs. Callahan paused. ``We don't 
     know what we'll do.''
       Despite the high prices and higher hopes, Avastin has been 
     shown to extend cancer patients' lives by only a few months. 
     Many patients and oncologists say it improves quality of life 
     and shrinks tumors--or at least prevents them from growing. 
     Mr. Callahan's doctor said it has slowed the progression of 
     his tumor. That is no small achievement for patients with 
     advanced cancer. But stopping the progression of cancer is 
     not the same as curing it. A study published in January 
     followed 53 melanoma patients who received Avastin. After 18 
     months, 13 were alive.
       The company that makes Avastin, Genentech, spent about 
     $2.25 billion to develop it. It spends another $1 billion a 
     year testing it on new cancers. Avastin has been a 
     blockbuster success. It had $2.7 billion in sales in the 
     United States last year and more than $3.5 billion worldwide.
       Genentech says Avastin's price reflects its value. Another 
     cancer drug, Erbitus, costs even more, and it hasn't been 
     shown to extend life at all. In March, Swiss pharmaceutical 
     giant Roche agreed to buy Genentech for $46.8 billion. 
     Avastin is a big reason the company was sold for so much 
     money.
       Not everyone agrees that Avastin is worth the price. 
     Experts in Britain recommended against covering it. A drug 
     that costs as much as a house and extends life for just a few 
     months isn't worth the money, they said.
       Some people go to pieces when they find out they've got 
     cancer. Mr. Callahan went to work.
       He has coached the Salukis for 14 years. ``I try to carry 
     on like I'm going to be here next week and next month,'' he 
     said. ``I think about coaching in 2010, about going to my 
     daughters' college graduations and their weddings.''
       His 2009 team finished with 24 wins and 28 losses. Coach 
     Callahan was too sick to travel to away games. But he was in 
     the dugout each time the Salukis took the field in 
     Carbondale.
       From the beginning, the Callahans have made it a point not 
     to ask doctors about his prognosis. ``We don't want to know 
     it, and we don't want our kids to know it,'' Mrs. Callahan 
     said. ``We just wanted to live our lives as normally as 
     possible, with no time line.''
       Coach Callahan thinks it is inherently unfair that patients 
     can be denied treatment simply because of a drug's high 
     price. It's like giving one team an extra at-bat.
       But the game is not over. Even with two outs in the ninth 
     inning, even with two strikes against you, there's hope. And 
     a question: Who sets the price of victory?

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Nebraska is 
recognized.

                          ____________________