The intention of this site is to raise awareness of colorectal cancer and how it impacts people, not to create a political discussion. However, my mom works for Sen. Ron Wyden (D - OR) and I got the letter from my insurance company outlining all of the things that have been covered and the costs associated with those things had we not been insured. I bring up Sen. Wyden because he is working on passing the Healthy Americans Act, a proposal that will provide all Americans with quality health insurance at an affordable price. Without health insurance, cancer is more of a death sentence than it already is.
Our first bill for the first half of radiation treatments alone cost more than the 3/4 of the BMW line of cars. Adding the second half on to it, will exceed anything that they produce except F1 cars. Vegas should start an over / under line on our total cost. We have one in the family right now, winner gets golf or spas.
I’ve been fortunate that I’ve had insurance for all of my life. Unfortunately, 45.8 million people in the US don’t have any health insurance at all. If you don’t have insurance and are diagnosed with cancer, you are in deep shit. There isn’t another way to say it. It is a Sisyphean effort for you too. Without insurance, you aren’t going to go to the doctor for regular check ups. Without insurance, you are going to put off that lump, that cough, that headache, that blurry vision or your fatigue until you just can’t deal any longer. Then you will go to some doc in the box who may misdiagnose you because she is too busy with other patients that also don’t have health insurance. At which point, it may be too late to do anything anyway.
And what if you catch it early? Chemo, radiation & surgery bills add up quicker than a bar tab on quarter night.
Studies say that there is a 7% risk of getting colon cancer in your lifetime. If 7% of the 45.8 million Americans currently without health insurance have colon cancer and don’t know it due to all of the reasons stated above, there is a good chance that this disease will kill over 3 million people. 1% of the US population. 0.5% of the population is diagnosed annually with cancer. That is 225,000 people with no insurance who know that they have cancer, but can’t afford to be treated adequately.
This is a shame, this is sad and this can be prevented. We all point to Canada or France as bastions of socialized health care. Why can’t we build out a similar system here in the US?
[Ed. - I received the following message from my mom shortly after posting this:’…be sure not to equate RW’s plan with socialized medicine. In his plan, instead of employers paying for insurance, they give the money to the employee who then selects a plan best for him. RW’s plan doesn’t have govt running hospitals, doctors’ offices etc. as does socialized medicine.’ Again, be sure to read about this at his site linked above and below. ]
Read a high level overview of the HAA here (.pdf)
This is test.
Scott,
So far my cancer treatments have run close to $1.3 million dollars. Can you believe most insurance companies only cover a colonoscopy if there is rectal bleeding? By the time there is bleeding cancer has already begun to grow. Sometimes there is no rectal bleeding and people can still be diagnosed with cancer. So we have to lie about rectal bleeding to get colonoscopies covered to save the insurance company millions of dollars. That is backassward. I’m thinking about you and Holly. Sending positive and happy thoughts your way.
Best,
Tim