Cost of treatment can be a problem for people with insurance as well.
Insurance laws vary from State to State. In some cases women on the
list have had trouble getting certain treatments, including taxol
because they aren't the "official" treatment for ovarian cancer. A
national health insurance act might have helped some people without
insurance, but we've also seen messages from our friends in Canada and
the UK about them not being able to get some of the drugs that are
available to us. They go through a national healthy system, which in
some ways appears to me to be as unforgiving as some of our HMO's.
In the meantime, there are some recourses here in the States. There is
an organization down in Maryland, National Coalition of Cancer
Survivors, that tries to help with insurance issues and they have a
booklet that you can order which explains various ways to get your
insurance to pay for things that they don't want to cover. So if your
doctor and you feel a course of treatment is worth pursuing, you should
look into it and ask the hospital social worker to help work out the
insurance issue.
I know of a young family where the woman, in her early 30's had a very
agressive form of breast cancer. There was one experimental treatment
available, and no one wanted to pay for it. The hospital and doctors
were willing to go along and do it and worry about money afterwards.
The husband said he didn't care about the money just save his wife's
life. She was treated 4 years ago and is doing fine. He owes about
400,000 and says he's going to declare "medical bankruptcy". This is
evidently something available in NY State. He gets letters from the
hospital and sends them whatever he can, but his wife's alive and well
and raising their two small children. They may be in debt for the rest
of their lives, but in the over all scheme of things, the money is
secondary.
Usually the ill person needs someone to advocate for them when it comes
to this sort of thing. Working your way through the insurance company,
writing letters, etc takes time and energy which you may not have if
you're ill. That I believe is one of the bigger problems with having to
fight to get the treatment you need. Again, I think the first place to
go for this type of help is the Social Services department of the
hospital where you are being treated.
Didn't mean to be so long, but I think the thread is important.
God Bless
marty auslander
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