One day while I was talking to my friend Dee, she told me that she had just found out that not only did her 32 year old Daughter have stage 4 breast Cancer, the cancer had spread to her spine. I was amazed. She had just said to me two days before that her daughter said she was feeling bad and thought she may have pneumonia. She told her daughter to go to the doctor but her daughter had just begun a new job two and a half months prior and had to wait for another two weeks in order to receive medical insurance benefits. She tried to wait the extra two weeks but just three days before her waiting period was up, Dee convinced her to go to the emergency room. It was in the emergency room where they found out that she had advanced cancer.
Her daughter decided to try and work the three extra days in order to receive the medical benefits for herself as well for her three children before she took a medical leave of absence. When the time came for her to apply for her benefits she was not able to receive them because when she went to the emergency room those fateful three days earlier and was diagnosed with cancer, she now had a pre existing condition. She now had two kids and cancer and no way to pay for the treatments.

It came to mind to me that I remembered Dee telling me once before that she had a double mastectomy years ago. She also told me that she was vigilant in reminding her daughters to get mammograms because they had history of breast cancer on both sides of their family. I then asked her why didn’t the cancer show on her mammogram. She said to me that her daughter tried to get a mammogram with her last insurance company for the past three years but they would not pay for them citing that women only need mammograms beginning at the age of 35 and her daughter was too young. They did not listen when her doctor told them of her family history.

It was then that I decided to support the president’s national healthcare plan. Before I was undecided. Now it was clear to me because my friend’s daughter put a human face to the problem. If we had a national healthcare plan maybe she would have been able to go to the doctor sooner and found the cancer before it had spread to her spine because she would not have had to wait 90 days for her medical insurance benefits at her new job to kick in. she would have been able to have her breast cancer removed and have a better chance to be able to return to the workforce and support her children. Maybe if we had a national health care plan, she would have been able to receive the mammogram she needed in order to detect the cancer earlier as well.

What has happened to Dee’s daughter? She is now receiving social security disability payments in order to provide for herself and her children. She also now receives Medicaid in order to pay for her cancer treatments. She and her children live with her mother and her mother has to now physically take care of her and her young kids. She is receiving chemo for her breast and spine cancer and just received the news that her cancer has spread to her spinal fluid and she needs to have a stint placed in her brain in order have chemo go to her brain in order to prevent the cancer from spreading to the brain. If by some miracle she survives this treatment and the cancer is killed in her spinal fluid, she will still have to take chemo for the rest of her life to treat the spine cancer. Is that any way to live? I am 32 years old as well. What would happen to my children if I were in the same position? What would you do if it were you or your daughter, mother, sister, wife? That thought completely changes things huh?