Unfortunately it was too late for Karen.
"
The sexy star of Five Easy Pieces, Nashville and Easy Rider just to name a few died August 8, 2013 after a long and public struggle with cancer.
Like a sadly increasing number of Americans, she also had to battle our insanely insensitive for profit healthcare system which drained their savings. So, her husband did what any resourceful and despairing partner would do, he set up a crowd funding campaign to pay their medical bills. They reached their goal but it was too late.
From Hollywood.com:
Black's husband, Stephen Eckelberry, realized that Black still has a following, so he set up a crowdfunding campaign to help with their medicals bills and finance an experimental treatment in Europe his wife thinks may help her condition. In November of 2010 she was diagnosed with ampullary cancer, which was treated by removing most of her pancreas and having her submit to intense doses of radiation. By the summer of 2011, it seemed she was in remission, but by early 2012 another tumor formed in her lower back that eventually spread to her lungs. What savings they possessed had already been spent on her previous treatment, so, to enable her to travel to Europe to try this different approach, Eckelberry set up a page on GoFundMe.com and established a fundraising goal of $32,000.
With their savings and medical resources spent in the US, Karen tried everything and everywhere for relief. Even experimental treatment which definitely would be a huge red flag for denial by any private insurers that I know of.
Our brutally profit driven healthcare business here in America doesn't care who it snuffs out. Even the stars. It is a machine bent on destroying the lives of millions of innocent hard working Americans.
Medical debt. Denials. Death.
I believe there is a better way. Take the profit out of healthcare and we will all feel better. No feeling guilt for being sick. No putting off treatment because we can't pay. No more. We deserve dignity and I truly believe that single payer is the way to true healthcare for all.
There is too much grief in this country.
