What is the price of life?  When one is living in the skin of death, how do you determine if they are worthy of health care?  By the amount of money they make, their race, overall demographic or geographic location?  When it comes to being ill, particularly cancer, it does not matter how you vote, your ethnicity or whether or not you prefer The Beatles or The Rolling Stones.  No, cancer and illness do not discriminate — so why should the Health Care Industry?

Trust me when I say, I am not attempting to get on my political soapbox by any means.  However, when it comes to life and death, correct me if I am wrong, but shouldn’t we all be treated as equals?  Aren’t we all deserving of health restoration if we have fallen ill?  I would certainly like to think so, but unless you have decent health insurance, how can one possibly undergo the maintenance to repair their health.  It’s not like we are talking about a vehicle, where the transmission is no longer in commission and the owner is not afforded the means to pay for it’s repair.  We are talking about human life, a living, breathing person whom is full of thoughts, a heart and in most best case scenario’s is a family member, a brother, sister, husband, wife, son or daughter, even perhaps a mother or father.

Just today Steve picked up the mail, a box I have been avoiding like the plague since my discharge from the hospital.  For I know that in between my few get well greeting cards will be a slew of medical bills, bills that Steve and I hadn’t planned on including into our finances for 2013.  But, then again, we also did not plan on including cancer into our lives either.

I should preamble this harangue by saying that I have Health Insurance and fantastic insurance at that.  Gratefully so, my medical bills are a fraction of what the actual cost of the bill is pre-insurance deduction.  A rough estimate on my fees so far is roughly $120,000.00 and that is as of July 1^st, 2013.  I am two months into my cancer diagnosis and merely two weeks into my treatment.  With approximately six months left in chemotherapy care, what might the ending total possibly be?

Like I said, I am beyond fortunate to have excellent health coverage, but there is still a hefty price for the cost of my life.  I can’t help but think of the individuals who are not covered under any insurance plans and are forced to make life and death decisions based on “insuranomics”.

The theme is that the reality is many individuals who are in dire need of treatment are forgoing it due to the painstaking instability of lacking insurance.  It’s fair to say that many companies offer it, but there are also many that don’t.  I will forever be grateful to the wonderful company that I work for and the insurance provided to me during this desperate time in my life.

For those that are finding themselves in a pinch with cancer and do not have health insurance, here are some helpful hosts to potentially getting some much needed help. ***Please note this information is not sponsored by the below mentioned Organizations*** 

• American Cancer Society:
  • “Health Insurance and Financial Assistance for the Cancer Patient”
    • www.cancer.org
    • 1-800-227-2345

• CancerCareAssist
  • www.cancercare.org
  • 1-800-813-4673

• Social Security and Medicaid
  • www.govbenefits.gov
  • 1-800-333-4636

Love,

Britt x