Several years' ago, after my breast cancer was successfully treated, I became active in supporting a group of young breast cancer survivors. As a group, they are amazing - they know that their cancers are usually more aggressive than breast cancers in older women, their treatments are usually harsher, and they don't have many of the resources that older patients do. Many have small children (or they are too young to have had kids yets), and poor health insurance. Even those who have good health care struggle to meet their day-to-day obligations.
As a result, they know a lot about things that young women shouldn't have to know about - Medicaid, emergency room charges, divorce, bankruptcy, the gotchas in health insurance.
And their stories are scary...
Take, for example, a young woman diagnosed at age 27. Moved back home to Maine, to the support of her parents. Now, several years's ago, Maine was a pretty normal New England state, poorer than many, but she got good basic care.
She got a job, and got health insurance.
But her type of cancer requires follow-up and treatment for several years. And Paul LePage became governor. And the hours at her job were cut back, so she no longer has company health insurance.
The funding for breast cancer treatment in Maine dried up. And Medicaid funding is now very limited.
So, when her doctor's office calls, and says that they want her to come in and see the oncologist, she doesn't go, because she cannot run up her bill any more. And when they ask her to get a scan, the hospital asks for $2000 up front, so she doesn't go.
There is a good chance she will die of this disease.
So, today, I wanted to share with you a story from the Texas Observer about what it's like to be a health care provider to the working poor with no insurance and no Medicaid in southern Texas. Where the charity services are being cut, and the environment is just loaded with carcinogens.
Rachel Pearson is the director of St. Vincent’s Student-Run Free Clinic. Where hospitals refer people with broken arms, even though the facility doesn't even have an x-ray machine. Because the hospital budgets won't allow them to set the bones.
The young people and their teachers who offer their time and resources are amazing. And the people of Texas should be ashamed. Of particular interest, is this number about charity care at the University of Texas Medical Branch:
But UTMB is no longer the state-subsidized charity hospital it used to be. The changes began before Hurricane Ike in 2008. But after the storm, UTMB administrators drastically cut charity care and moved clinics to the mainland, where there are more paying patients. The old motto “Here for the Health of Texas” was replaced by “Working together to work wonders.” Among those wonders are a new surgical tower and a plan to capitalize on Galveston’s semi-tropical charm by attracting wealthy healthcare tourists from abroad. Medical care for the poor is not, apparently, among the wonders. Whereas UTMB accepted 77 percent of charity referrals in 2005, it was only taking 9 percent in 2011.
For the complete story:
http://www.texasobserver.org/...