At 2:01 Thursday morning, June 5th, our 59 year old sister-in-law/sister died from an aggressive cancer, 11 months after her diagnosis. She had worked hard for almost 40 years and had savings and owned her own home. However, when she could no longer work, she had to pay for COBRA insurance at a very high rate. Also, she had to get pre-approval for necessary treatments, and getting these pre-approvals often took the limited energy she had due to her disease.
What would have happened if our sister-in-law/sister could not afford the COBRA payments? Would her chemotherapy have been stopped? As it was, her bills mounted up while the administrative work to get her COBRA activated moved at a snail’s pace. In this healthcare climate, could she assume that these bills would be paid off once (and if!) the COBRA policy was in place? This was not something she could take for granted, adding to the massive challenge of living with her disease.
During that 11 months of precious time, she was overwhelmed with anxiety and uncertainty about how she would support herself if she survived her cancer. It was unlikely she would be able to work again. Is that how someone with a grave illness should spend what could be their final months? According to Bernie Sanders, approximately 50% of people receiving cancer treatments go bankrupt or use all of their savings for medical costs. Again, when someone is gravely ill, does the anxiety over medical expenses enhance their prognosis?
Our medical care system is broken. Why isn’t there more of an outcry and support for universal care?
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Margie Bekoff and Jim Morse
Weybridge