Surviving the system, courtesy of the ACS

The American Cancer Society has a lobbying arm called the Cancer Action Network [Read about it here.] The ACS CAN recently launched a big initiative for cancer patients called "Surviving the System". They launched it with a Lobby Day which took place on the 20th.

The idea was to get regular people sharing their stories...and reachng out to their elected officials to ask for health care reform, for cancer patients and in general.

While cancer isn't the number one killer in America, it does claim over half a million lives a year. And getting cancer can be devastating to families for more reasons than just the fear and anxiety over our lvoed ones' health. According to a study released to coincide with ACS CAN's Lobby Day:

•  Nearly one in three people diagnosed with cancer under the age of 65 has been uninsured since their cancer diagnosis.  Scientific research shows that being uninsured can adversely impact your chance of survival.
• One in five families affected by cancer have used up all or most of their savings because of health care costs and more than 40 percent have had difficulty affording their health care costs in the last two years. 
• More than two-thirds of Americans under age 65 who tried to find insurance outside their employer couldn’t afford a plan. 

Our family just went through a cancer scare or two ourselves, but luckily we are all covered, well-covered. Imagining the stress of having no or insufficient coverage, on top of the stress cancer brings on its own...well, I wouldn't want to experience that. 

And once again, it begs a fundamental question: Insufficient or non-existent coverage can impact someone's chance of survival. Is it OK that people live or die in this country based not on whether what they have is treatable or curable or not, but rather on their income level or class or employment status? All of which seems highly volatile in this economy. And what if we're talking about children, who surely aren't responsible for their parent's socio-economic status? 

California is experiencing record unemployment, and I'm guessing a lot of people are losing their coverage. Or being forced to choose between paying exorbitant COBRA payments vs. paying for other necessities, like food, shelter etc.

Those people may be very employable, may have new jobs with coverage waiting around the corner. Is it OK that they have to hope that nothing catastrophic happens to them...whether one-time, like a car accident, or chronic, like a cancer diagnosis...while they're toughing out this economy like we all are?

I continue to think it's not. You can read more about the ACS's perspective and their efforts for health care reform on their site and their blog.

Comments

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The Cancer Network is a good idea since it can help provide the ACS with the resources needed by cancer patients. The network can act as a support group and help cancer patients and their families afford the medications and treatment.