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Revolutionary new cancer drugs offer hope where there was none. But the price tag may be too high for some to bear.
Many Americans are already having to decide between food on the table and their prescription medications. The health care crisis is hitting hard, and the cost of prescription drugs is sky-rocketing. But what happens when you have to decide between expensive breast cancer treatments to save your life, and paying the mortgage on your house? How much could you afford to spend, to save your life? It's not even a fair question to ask, but many cancer patients are being forced to answer it.
This is an excerpt from a recent article in SELF magazine...
Seven months after being diagnosed with stage IIIB inflammatory breast cancer, 37-year-old Diekmeyer had spent nearly 100 days in doctors' offices or the hospital near her Ohio home. She'd had five surgeries, with another scheduled for September; slogged through more than three months of grisly chemotherapy; suffered the indignities of baldness and violent nausea. After all that, she still didn't know if she'd survive the year. But Diekmeyer had another, more immediate, fear keeping her up nights. Because of mounting medical bills, she was worried she might lose her home.
Marianna took a look at "What is your life worth?" -- Marianna is a military veteran with over 16 years of service, and is a college graduate with degrees in political science and human resource. This is what she thinks...
Ever the advocate for women's health and the pursuit of advancing women's issues in medical science, I was reading Self Magazine's article bought today while flipping through the stacks of magazines to buy while contemplating what to make for dinner (okay I digress......) in regards to the journey of several women plagued with cancer and the expensive drugs out there being sold to save their lives. -- read her full post here
As a nurse working on an oncology unit many years ago, I would sometimes think about whether or not I would choose to have debilitating chemo treatments if I were ever diagnosed with an incurable cancer. Not that I wouldn't want to live, I just sometimes wondered, if I were faced with the dilemma of quality vs. quantity, what would I choose? I never thought back then, that I (or anyone else for that matter) might someday be faced with not even having a choice. But that is exactly what is happening today.
You have a job, have health insurance, even have a little savings. You're set for anything, right? Wrong. If a major medical crisis hits your family, you could find yourself left with almost nothing.
Anne Cortes was diagnosed with aggresive breast cancer in 2005. In the following 18 months, that diagnosis cost her $30,000. -- read full article
Even though I know it's true, I still find it hard to believe that there are people that will die because they can not afford a known treatment for their cancer. We live in the richest country in the world, but some of us will still be faced with the inability to afford life saving treatments...How can that be? I guess nothing should surprise me, considering we have a president that doesn't even think all kids deserve to have quality health care. We live in a country where the very rich and the very poor are guaranteed medical treatment, but the rest of us need to live in fear of being hung out to dry if we ever face a life threatening illness. There's just something seriously wrong with that.
African-American Women and Breast Cancer Treatment...
Despite the abundance of public education about mammography and the importance of early detection and treatment over the years, the numbers continue to show a marked disparity between Black women's survival from this disease as compared to other women in the United States. Why? Because even though we do a good job of providing mammograms to women who can't afford them, we don't do a very good job of making treatment affordable. We've got to realize that we don't do poor or uninsured women a favor by offering free mammograms, telling them they have breast cancer, but not offering them a way to pay for their treatment.
It's breast cancer awareness month, and what I have become most aware of, is the hypocrisy and unfairness of the health care system. We have insurance companies that just decide what treatments they will
