By Donna Smith, American SiCKO,
Communications specialist, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee
Tomorrow I'll have my third colonoscopy. Twice before, precancerous polyps have been found and removed, so my schedule for testing is every three years. That three years goes by way too fast. I know the screenings are life-saving for many, but I still hate them. And my hatred goes well beyond my dislike of the preps necessary.
As a uterine cancer survivor and an insured American who was financially devastated after illness, my cancer checks are always fraught with a bit of trepidation and a lot of projecting.
But private, for-profit insurance leaves me exposed -- and worse still, it leaves millions and millions of unsuspecting insureds wide open to financial ruin. On the eve of my screening, this is what I think about.
What if I have cancer again? What if the insurance doesn't pay for something? And then beyond... What if I miss work? What if we have to move again? What if the bills pile up?
My head swirls in a sea of worry. Being a hard-working woman with some degree of determination no longer means I am safe in America. My "national security" is nil.
Until we have single payer healthcare, truly universal care for all, cancer patients like me will weigh the value of our lives not by what measure of decency or beauty or good work we may bring to the world, but by how much we might cost our families if we need care. What a cruel and unusual punishment for getting cancer.
You see, I'm not one of those cancer patients who has a bankroll somewhere. My husband and I are just barely beginning our crawl out of the depths of bankruptcy and financial distress caused by getting sick and having lousy insurance coverage and a diminished capacity to work.
I cannot afford to have cancer again and, therefore, I am sure wondering why I bother to have the screenings any more.
One would think my fears and anxiety would be subsiding now that I have better insurance and a good job. But getting sick in America or even needing preventative care or cancer screenings in America is something I know something about. And I know that any sense of security I might have at this moment could easily be ripped away in an instant.
I take nothing for granted, and I have learned not to trust in anything I have today to be there should I need it tomorrow. I am a casualty of this broken system. My peace of mind and my sense of security were shattered again and again and again. I fought back, every time. I fought back in spite of what I knew would be the next time just around the corner.
God forbid I have any more cancer because I know already that I will not want to spend months or years fighting this system only to doom my family to that too. I do understand why some people just end it all rather than suffer.
We celebrate those American heroes who selflessly put themselves in harm's way to save others. Well there are many, many civilian Americans making those same choices today because our healthcare system will not protect them -- insured or not.
Some people stop treatment of never start it because they know the care is either not covered or covered so minimally that it will bankrupt their loved ones. Some people just never go to seek the care at all for the same reasons. I suppose that's the market forces working -- culling out the weakest among us, those expendable folks, eh?
And I am here to tell you that while suicide used to be viewed as an angry act against those left behind, I think many health-related suicides are just the opposite. The one case I always remember is a friend's husband who killed himself just at the point when the costs for his care would have begun depleting his family's savings and threatening their home ownership. Imagine his final moments spent alone and praying for forgiveness. For what? For getting cancer? For have junk insurance? And imagine my friend's grief. And then try to tell me about the years still needed to fix this system.
You see, I don't think of these deaths as suicides. I think of them as murders.
I know my vision is clouded today by apprehension and that tomorrow when my cancer screening is over I may well feel like I've been given another three-year stay of execution. But, God, I am so tired of this system making people worry like this and knowing such awful choices are made by patients every day.
The American Cancer Society already knows that the financial pressures on patients in our current healthcare system are off-setting the advances made in screenings and early treatment of cancer. No doubt.
And that's the system so many of our elected officials don't understand needs to be fixed? Come on. They get it. They just don't live it down here in the trenches like most cancer patients and families do.
Under a single payer plan, like HR676, suicides due to fear of future medical costs would be a thing of the past. And that's a good thing, I think.
And once I get done with this lousy bowel prep and the test and -- hopefully get a clean bill of colon health for another three years -- I want you to help me ask more of our elected "leaders" to actually stand up and stand for the American people and our peace of mind. That is why we elect them, is it not?