{"id":1207,"date":"2018-10-01T10:00:21","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T14:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=1207"},"modified":"2018-10-01T10:00:21","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T14:00:21","slug":"bake-sales-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2018\/10\/01\/bake-sales-for-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Bake Sales for Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bake Sales for Life<\/p>\n

There was a television show on in the mid-1960\u2019s called Run for Your Life<\/em>.\u00a0 It featured a lawyer, Ben Gazarra, who quit working and went on adventures, doing everything on his \u201cbucket list.\u201d \u00a0At least once each show, someone brought up the fact that he was living beyond his means; his money would soon run dry.\u00a0 Then the facts of his doom were explained: \u00a0Gazarra had leukemia with little time left to live. He was trying to do everything before his time ran out.\u00a0 He was \u201crunning for his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today medicine has made great strides in cancer treatments.\u00a0 The leukemia of Run for Your Life, <\/em>a death sentence in the mid-1960\u2019s, is now a controllable disease with a good chance of long-term survival.\u00a0 But, here in the United States, there is another controlling factor in the treatment of this and other cancers:\u00a0 the cost.<\/p>\n

The average cost of cancer treatment is $100000 to $150000 (AARP<\/a>.)\u00a0 For those who have \u201cgood\u201d health insurance, including Medicare, 80% of the cost will be covered, but that still leaves $20,000 to $30,000.\u00a0 For those who don’t have insurance, they not only have to bear the entire costs (though when income gets low enough, they will become eligible for government assistance through Medicaid) but their actual costs are higher.\u00a0Insurance companies negotiate with care providers and drug manufacturers for reduced costs. Uninsured patients pay \u201cfull cost\u201d for their care, often double what insured patients pay.<\/p>\n

And, of course, during cancer treatment it is difficult to continue working.\u00a0 So the bills from treatment are added to the bills of life; rent, food, and the rest.\u00a0 Cancer patients are twice as likely to declare bankruptcy as non-patients (Chicago Tribune<\/a>.) <\/em>Even in Canada, with a nationalized health care system, patients in some Provinces (though not all) bear the costs of drug therapy, (in Nova Scotia there is a $29000 deductible<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

These are all numbers, but behind the figures are the living survivors who face an enormous health threat. \u00a0Added to their (and their families) burden is the enormous financial expense.\u00a0 Their lives are threatened by cancer; their lifestyles and families are threatened by bankruptcy.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a choice.<\/p>\n

So they find ways to try to keep up with the bills.\u00a0 They max out their credit cards, wipe out their retirements, sell their houses, borrow from friends.\u00a0 They put jars on the counters of gas stations and McDonalds; they have bake sales:\u00a0bake sales for life.<\/p>\n

In Germany, the cost of cancer treatment to the patient is \u20ac10 per day in the hospital, with a cap at twenty-eight days.\u00a0 That\u2019s roughly $325.\u00a0\u00a0 In the United Kingdom costs are similar.\u00a0 Drug and other treatment costs are covered by their national health systems.\u00a0These modern countries recognize health care as a right, not a function of employment.<\/p>\n

In the debates over the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, Republican Congressman Mo Brooks revealed that repealing the Act:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026will allow insurance companies to require people who have higher health care costs to contribute more to the insurance pool that helps offset all these costs, thereby reducing the cost to those people who lead good lives, they\u2019re healthy, they\u2019ve done the things to keep their bodies healthy,\u201d (New Yorker<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

And while other Republican leaders weren\u2019t quite as blunt, they too have shared the view that sick people are at fault, and therefore need to bear the cost.\u00a0 Healthy people shouldn\u2019t have to share so much of the burden.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s \u201call-good\u201d when you\u2019re not sick.<\/p>\n

The Trump tax cut will cost the US Government $2.3 trillion of the next ten years.\u00a0 Over those same ten years, the estimated cost of cancer care in the US is $1.25 trillion ( HHS<\/a>.)\u00a0 At the same time, the US Defense budget is $696 billion for next year alone.\u00a0 We are setting priorities: \u00a0not building infrastructure, not funding education, and not trying to ease the burden of healthcare.\u00a0 We have cut taxes so even a new Congress or President will have difficulty financing different priorities.<\/p>\n

It leaves cancer patients to have bake sales:\u00a0 for life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bake Sales for Life There was a television show on in the mid-1960\u2019s called Run for Your Life.\u00a0 It featured a lawyer, Ben Gazarra, who quit working and went on adventures, doing everything on his \u201cbucket list.\u201d \u00a0At least once each show, someone brought up the fact that he was living beyond his means; his … Continue reading “Bake Sales for Life”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBake Sales for Life : Our America - 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