Over three thousand cancer patients, survivors, friends and relatives went to Capital Hill to lobby Congress. The group want lawmakers to reauthorize a program that provides breast and cervical cancer screening for the uninsured. They lobbied for more money for cancer research and detection methods.
The National Cancer Institute's budget will be cut by forty million dollars by President Bush's proposed budget for 2007. This can really hurt research programs and early detection methods to help the uninsured. Treatment programs now only reach one in every five women that are eligible for it.
The two day event was sponsored by the American Cancer Society and its sister advocacy group, the Cancer Action Network. The event attracted over ten thousand people. They also had large exhibits available to visit that showed the work of state and local cancer activists.
1. While uninsured, detection is the easy part. Once detected, what happens next?
When I was diagnosed, I proceded to do what I could to save my life as a result of cancer. So I had a mastectomy and gave no thought to the expense figuring that I would apply for Medicaid afterwords and it would be retroactive. I really took it for granted that as a result of near poverty income and lack of insurance that I would get Medicaid without a hitch! I was so wrong. I was denied after the first application.
At that point, I was profoundly depressed as I had no resources at all to cover my surgery expenses nor could I cover any subsequent treatment. If I bought food so I could eat to stay alive, I couldn't pay for anything else. So I appealed that denial and was denied again. I was ready to drive up to DC without my shirt on and make my plight very public.
Eventually, I discovered things like patient assistance programs that covered my prescription medications but I'm still in the hole for the surgery I had almost two years ago and I'm afraid of the future. Cost of detection is nothing compared to the cost of treatment. It's a couple hundred dollars for a mammogram or about the same for a doctor visit, depending. I go to a clinic that charges a sliding scale fee so it costs me only $40 per visit.
I can't imagine what it would have been like were I to decide to get chemo in addition to everything. There is no way I could afford that. Neither detection or treatment should be a choice. It should be available to all uninsured. How else can we stop this epidemic?
Posted at 1:24AM on Sep 21st 2006 by MaryD