Why We Shouldn’t Detect Cancer Early
I am reading this article from the New York Times and I am blown away by what I’m seeing. I always was told and believed that detecting cancer early was a good thing so that treatment could be given before the cancer becomes so advanced as to metastasize and kill its victim.
Unless I am not understanding correctly, this article seems to be saying that some doctors and a government committee feel that some cancers can live and grow in the body, but if you are older you will probably die of something else before the cancer really becomes a health concern for you.
It further seems to say that by detecting it early you would undergo treatments that would prove to be unnecessary because you’re going to die soon anyway. WHAT?
I don’t know about anyone else but I do not want cancerous tumors anywhere in my body whether they are causing me pain or not. These doctors seem to be saying that they are affecting the quality of life by treating and testing the cancer, rather than the cancer affecting the quality of life.
Of course I have to ask once again where do the insurance companies and money fit in to all this. After all look at how much can be saved if we just all forget about testing high risk groups of people for cancer, and even more money can be saved by ignoring it and not offering treatment.
Honestly, sometimes I feel like I woke up on the wrong planet. See the whole article here and throw me a comment, I’d love to know what you think about all this.
New Report, Same Old Story on The Ill Uninsured
One third of uninsured Americans has a chronic disease that is not being medically cared for. People who are uninsured typically only see the doctor through ER visits when the conditions have gotten very bad and out of control. These patients will have complications from their conditions and die younger after being prematurely disabled.
There are about 47 million uninsured in the United States. The reports concludes that 11.4 million Americans that have at least one of seven major illnesses are not insured. They broke it down to 16.1% of 7.8 million with heart disease, 15.5 % of 38.2 million with high blood pressure, and 16.6% of 8.5 million diabetics. They also looked at other conditions such as COPD, cancer, asthma, and high cholesterol.
6.2% of insured people did not have regular doctor visits compared to 26% of uninsured who also did not. 22% of the uninsured had not gone to see a doctor in the past year compared to 6.2% of insured. 1.1% of insured people used the ER as their source of care, compared to 7.1% of uninsured.
Doctors can become frustrated because they know that almost all these conditions can be managed with minimal complications if they were given the chance to treat them early and regularly.
It would seem to me that the answer lies in insuring the uninsured, or making health care and medicine competitive and possible at lower costs.
Health Care For America Now!
has started a nationwide 40 million dollar campaign to begin a coalition for change in our health care system. They hope to be able to pressure lawmakers and insurance companies to hold them accountable and fill in the present gaps in our system. They want to change policies that affect people who are denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions and who otherwise fall through the cracks in the system. They hope to be able to drive costs down, encourage competition between insurance companies, and recruit many more supporters to force these badly needed changes.
C-Sections May Raise Insurance Rates
A healthy woman applied for family health insurance and was rejected because she had two c-sections. The insurance company says that woman who have had this surgery will most likely have it again and they do not want to cover it.
Different states have different policies on this matter, as do the insurance companies. The really bad thing about it is that this woman now has a rejection on her record which can negatively affect future insurance applications.
Of course the insurance companies don’t want to pay for this but they are saying that most of these surgeries are not necessary and are done for convenience .
I myself have had two and believe me, they were anything but convenient. With over 31% of children born this way this could become a big problem for women and their families.
Massachusetts Health Insurance Law
Massachusetts has reported that it has fined 100,000 of it’s people for “being able to afford” health insurance but not having it. They say they have raised over 9.7 million in fines which they are using to pay for this law which was estimated to cost over 900 million dollars.
Under this law you must prove that you cannot afford the insurance or be fined. They have set up some insurance plans that they say people who earn even three times the poverty level can apply for and get.
I have been around long enough to know that sometimes when you apply for state or federal assistance, they only look at your income, and maybe your rent/mortgage and utilities. That’s how they decide if you can afford it or not. They refuse to recognize credit cards, loans you may have, medical bills, school tuition’s, groceries, car gas, insurance, etc, etc, etc.
I do not know if this is the case in Massachusetts, but as an uninsured person myself, I resent the government telling me what I can and can’t afford, especially when they are responsible for taking some of my earnings to pay their own salaries so they can afford it.