Access to Quality Healthcare is Personal & Critical

What would you do if your mother had an advanced stage of colon cancer and your parents’ insurance company cancels her citing “pre-existing” conditions? Since most cancer patients experience unrecognized symptoms prior to actual diagnosis, the insurance company could cancel the patient citing that the symptoms are an indication that the cancer was a “pre-existing” condition. This situation might seem ridiculous to you; however, this actually happened to my family.

You’re probably saying to yourself, hey, that’s unfortunate but easy to deal with. I’d tell my parents to sue the insurance company, deplete my savings and investments to help treat my mom, and ask my siblings to do the same. As someone who has been through it, I’m telling you it is not that easy. Cancer patients are overwhelmed with the physical, mental, and emotional toll their illness takes on their minds and bodies. My mother was interested in enjoying her last years, not getting caught in legal red tape. My parents did in fact go to an attorney to discuss the insurance situation; however, they were informed it would take years to recover any money. They were not interested in wasting precious time with that. As for depleting your savings, while a nice gesture, it would not be enough to suffice. My sister and I pitched in by putting ourselves through college and being all-around good kids so to not add to our parents already high-stressed lives.

My father estimated that my mother’s medical bills amounted to approximately $ 450,000 (he said he lost count after $375,000). Imagine being stuck with that bill after your insurance company cancels you? Uninsured and underinsured patients have to choose between making a mortgage payment or purchasing a $1000 prescription. Due to mounting medical costs, patients frequently miss doctors’ appointments, prescription refills, and necessary treatments due to the inability to pay.

As you can see, being young there wasn’t much I could do to help my mother through her cancer than just offering emotional support and reminding her how much I loved her and what a wonderful mother she was. My mother wanted my sister and me to stay in school and focus on studies, internships, and being young; in short, she wanted us to have as normal a life as possible. My mom has been gone for over two years and I am just now gaining the courage to speak out and educate others on the importance of access to health care for cancer patients. More than 560,000 Americans will die of cancer this year alone. I would hope that one day soon not one of those deaths will be due to lack of access to care. Sadly, that is not the case today but we are making strides.

I would like to take this opportunity to applaud the DC Council for recently passing legislation to increase the access to the DC Alliance city health care program eligibility for uninsured District residents up to 400% of the Federal Poverty Level and to provide these services regardless of pre-existing conditions. I call on the states to follow DC’s lead to ensure government is doing their necessary part to help save lives and give families hope that their loved ones can receive adequate medical care to battle this frightening illness. We might be unable to cure cancer today; however, we definitely have the ability to save and prolong lives by ensuring adequate, affordable care can be accessed by those battling this life-altering illness.