Legal Loophole Ensares Breast Cancer Patients

[OzarkDem]

Front page article in the Wall Street Journal this week about the dirty little secret in the world of breast cancer...

LONGVIEW, Texas -- In June 2003, Shirley Loewe went to Good Shepherd Medical Center here with a softball-size lump in her breast and was diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer. She didn't know it, but she had just made a big mistake.

Ms. Loewe was uninsured. Under federal law, she could have gotten Medicaid coverage -- and saved herself a lot of hardship -- if she'd gone to a different clinic less than a half-mile away. But by walking through Good Shepherd's doors, Ms. Loewe unwittingly let that opportunity slip and embarked on a four-year journey through the Byzantine U.S. health-care system.

It was an odyssey that would take her to five hospitals, two clinics, two charitable organizations and two nursing homes in two states. She was denied assistance or care at least six times along the way, for reasons that ranged from not being poor enough to not being sick enough.

On a late June morning, Ms. Loewe lay in bed, emaciated and writhing in pain. Her left arm and hand were swollen to three times their size from lymphedema, a side effect of her breast surgery. Embarrassed by her appearance, she hid the huge black scar left on the top of her head by her brain surgery under a grey beret.

She reacted little when told that her ordeal could have been avoided had she gone to a different clinic back in 2003. "It's very complicated when you don't have health insurance," she whispered. "I really don't understand it much."

Ms. Loewe died on June 25 at age 55. Her daughter sold her car to pay for her cremation.

Here in Ohio, a state that ranks 4th highest in the nation for breast cancer deaths per capita, Democratic candidate for governor, Ted Strickland agreed to fix Ohio's program and provide coverage for all uninsured low income women. After taking office and being heavily lobbied by those in the mammography business, he went back on his promise and agreed only to provide additional funding for mammography services, not treatment.


Link: http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118781024289705455.html

[iamjoy]

1. Well, It's Her Own Fault

After all, when she discovered the large lump in her breast her first thought should not have been to get a diagnosis and treatment as soon as possible, her first thought should have been how to pay for it. I mean, really people... How hard is it, right?


:sarcasm:

[OzarkDem]

2. A recent study showed

that patients who suspect they have cancer or are newly diagnosed experience levels of stress equal to that of soldiers under fire in combat. Like having a "deer in the headlights" moment that goes on for weeks.

If Gov. Rick Perry can show some compassion, why can't Dem governors?

[truedelphi]

3. And in California, I wouldn't say treatment is all that good for the insured

As a private duty nurses' aide, I have been called in to help with a woman who had had a mastectomy the day before.

The hospital sent her home with a large plastic baggie containing the instructions for her to change her own wound bandages. And the gauze and bandages etc.

The woman happened to be a nurse - so she was fully aware of how important it was to have the proper care. But since she was right handed and that was the breast that was removed, it would have been nigh impossible for her to change her own bandage.

To me it is sexism pure and simple. No guy would go in and have half his scrotum removed and be sent home to tend to it himself a mere twenty four hours later.

[emilyg]

4. You are so right.

Thank God Emory Hosp. kept me for 3 days.

[OzarkDem]

5. Any treatment is better than none

many uninsured women will refuse treatment for fear of the cost. They just give up.



Treatment is more than a mastectomy, it entails much more, including treatment w/ chemotherapy, biological therapy, and/or radiation therapy.

[Caria]

6. That's what my insurer did for me!

But I am not a nurse and you left out the part about the tubing and drains! I also had instructions about emptying the drains and measuring the fluid that they'd collected. Which I could not do because I did not have enough range of motion in my arm (and would not until several days after the drains had been removed).

I was in the best shape of that morning's surgical releases, because I was in my 30s and had someone at home who could take care of me 24-7 as long as needed.

I supposedly had GOOD insurance through my job, but I had to be out of the hospital within 24 hours of admission. I still remember sitting in a wheelchair in the hall, as "my" room was being cleaned and readied for the next patient. I had to sign something, but I found it difficult to hold the pen, much less write with it. That was my mastectomy side, and even the smallest movement was very painful.

[OzarkDem]

7. How do you feel

about breast cancer patients who don't have health insurance? Shouldn't survivors do all they can to make sure all the uninsured patients get coverage?

Some of the women in our area are ending up with $100,000 and more in hospital bills. Outrageous!

[Caria]

9. Health care is a human right IMHO

I was just responding to the comments in an earlier post. I most certainly did NOT mean to imply otherwise.

As a survivor, I DO donate time and money to help uninsured patients, but it angers me that they need to rely on people like me.

[OzarkDem]

10. So true

We can't solve the problem with private donations, bake sales and races. That's why advocates got this program enacted (during the Clinton administration). A great example of breast cancer survivors helping each other.

Its a shame so many governors have done such a poor job of taking advantage of the Breast & Cervical Cancer Treatment Program in their states. Another one of those "pay me now or pay me later" scenarios.

[truedelphi]

11. OzarkDem Please understand I am totally on your side - I did not mean

To set this up about a debate as to Who has it worse - the insured or the uninsured.

Very sorry if I let it seem that way to you.

I just find the whole situation ironic. Between 1955 and 2001 we spent over 33 TRILLION dollars on our defense so that we would never end up with the rotten health care situation that supposedly they had in Russia - poorly maintained supply closets, too few hospital beds, not enough equipment etc.

And as someone in the field - What I have seen in the last five years goes beyond atrocious.

Marin General Hospital, a community based hospital, lets you have a forty-five minute stay in their emergency rooms. By law they have to admit you if you are not insured - but even if you are - they only want to make some notes on a ledger and release you, whether you are ready to go home or not.

They had NO sterile bandages on the floor that I worked on about four years ago. The bandages were clearly labelled as being nine years old. This means they should have been disposed of long ago.

We are now in the twenty first century - they should have had bandages with gel inserts for healing etc. and all they provided was this old crap.

And I wasn't trying to say that uninsured people don't deserve anything because after all the insured person finds it sucks so the uninsured should have it even suckier (if suckier is even a word.)

I am just trying to show how awful care is - for everyone.
BTW as of January of this year, I am uninsured.

I want good health care - Universal Health Care for all. The thirty per cent of our health care dollars that now go to the insurance industry should stay in the system and provide for our health needs - not another summer home for insurance executives.

[OzarkDem]

13. Sorry to hear you're uninsured

Don't worry, I understand. As an advocate, though, I'm used to women getting sidetracked by the "drive through mastectomy" thing. Its important to get them to focus on the bigger picture.

Make sure you sign up for the free screening programs in CA. While care may not be the best, as you so accurately pointed out, at least they have a lot of programs to help uninsured.

[truedelphi]

18. This is criminal behavior.

Od course when it happens to you, you have just been operated on and arein shockand woozy.

But I am so fed up I am thinking of taking Kaiser to court - small claims court - to go after them for stuff they did not do for me when I was paying $ 500 a month for my coverage.

Just because it is policy doesn't mean that it is proper behavior.

[lovuian]

8. This is not humane and Jesus didn't ask can you pay

Universal Health is the way to go

it gets down to they have zero value of life

[DawgHouse]

14. I agree!

But I am confused about one line in the story: Mrs. Ferguson, who is personally opposed to universal health care because she thinks it would lower the quality of care, was discouraged. "I remember thinking: 'How can they let her die just because she doesn't have health insurance in this state?' " she says.

[OzarkDem]

15. I hope she's changed her mind

she must have drank too much of the "socialized medicine" kool aide that the medical profession sells. Gee, they thought medical malpractice reform would solve everything too. :sarcasm:

It was incredibly shocking how many doctors and hospitals didn't do their job in this case. Her own doctor in Texas refused to refer her to MD Anderson, who could have given her better treatment for the rare form of breast cancer she had (inflammatory).

Also shocking was the oncologist who blamed it on Ms. Lowe, saying she didn't "seek early attention". As an oncologist he should know that inflammatory breast cancer grows very quickly and is nearly impossible to detect in early stages, since it doesn't grow as a solid tumor. The guy is either an incompetent doctor or a big liar.

Last but not least, there was the surgeon who offered to operate on her for free, but his hospital wanted $90,000 cash up front.

All of it could have been avoided, but sadly this scenario is repeated every day in this country.

[sandnsea]

16. They think people get free care

I know a lot of people who think people without insurance get free care, somehow or other. They're told about the illegals getting free care all the time, they just think people are lying when they say no one will treat them without money or insurance. They also don't understand emergency care to prevent imminent death, from medical treatment to cure illness. I've always been lucky to live in areas with hospitals that did provide real care to all comers, but I know that isn't true for everybody.

[OzarkDem]

19. The Breast Cancer Fairy

in a cloud of pink glitter and with a wave of her pink wand, magically makes all the poor women well again.

Polticians love the Breast Cancer Fairy. She takes away all their problems and saves their budgets from the pesky cost of health care. Its magic! They light buildings and monuments pink in her honor.

A Pink Arch (thanks to Jim Talent who opposed treatment for uninsured women)



A Pink Fountains Galore





Pink Philadelphia



Pink New York



Missouri Gov Blount's Wife Wears Pink



Politicians love decorating things pink in honor of the Breast Cancer Fairy!

[uppityperson]

12. k&r for important things like being able to get treated for cancer

[AZBlue]

17. K&R

This is absurd.