Staff Reports
Cartoonist Scott Adams — the creator of Dilbert who has been candid about his aggressive, metastatic prostate cancer — went public this week with an urgent plea for help when his health care provider approved a promising new therapy but failed to schedule the infusion he needs. Adams said Kaiser of Northern California had approved Pluvicto, a recently FDA-cleared radiolabeled PSMA treatment, but that scheduling the brief IV was being inexplicably delayed while his condition worsened. Facing rapid decline and intense pain, Adams took the extraordinary step of asking President Trump to intervene so he could get the life-extending therapy started as soon as possible.
President Trump answered the call immediately, posting that he was “on it,” and Health and Human Services leadership — including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — also reached out to help coordinate care. Medical directors at Kaiser publicly acknowledged the urgency and said they were moving to address Adams’ case after the flurry of attention. What this shows in plain terms is that when ordinary bureaucracies stall, strong leadership and public pressure can still cut through the red tape and get Americans the care they desperately need.
Adams’ situation is heartbreaking but not surprising given the tragic timeline he’s described: he revealed months ago that the cancer had spread to his bones, leaving him in constant pain and using a walker, and he warned he might not survive long without effective intervention. That grim prognosis is why the window for prompt medical action matters so much — delays that might be inconvenient for bureaucrats can be fatal for a man in Adams’ condition. Conservatives who have long warned about slow, one-size-fits-all health systems are watching this unfold with concern and vindication.
This episode reveals two things Americans should already know: first, centralized, monolithic health systems and paperwork-driven processes too often put patients behind filings and calendars instead of in front of doctors and treatments; second, leaders who are willing to take decisive action — no matter their critics — can and do make the difference between life and death. If a private citizen’s desperate post on social media can prod a major insurer into action, imagine how much better our system could be if patient care, not process, were the priority across the board. No amount of finger-wagging from the coastal elites changes that.
Adams even reported he was headed to the emergency room as the situation escalated, underscoring how close to the edge this man stood while waiting for an IV that could give him more time. He and other patients deserve systems that move faster, and they deserve access to promising treatments without having to wage a public campaign to get them scheduled. Conservatives should be unashamedly proud that Republican leaders — from the president on down — stepped in when a fellow American’s life was on the line.
This is about real people, not partisan theater. If the left’s version of compassion is endless lectures and bureaucratic inertia, the right’s version is action — getting medicine to the bedside and refusing to let red tape kill a citizen. Pray for Scott Adams, push for reforms that prioritize patients over paperwork, and remember that America still works when its leaders are willing to act fast for the people they serve.
