Monday, August 22, 2011

MSNBC: "After uproar, man with breast cancer OK’d for coverage":
Although he was not eligible for traditional Medicaid coverage, Johnson was told to apply for coverage under Medicaid’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act, an 11-year-old federal mandate designed to help people who may not fit into traditional Medicaid eligibility requirements. But the program only provides care for women....

There is a misperception that Medicaid is for all poor people, when you actually have to fit into a very specific category, much of which is determined at the state level,” explained Jeff Stensland, a health department spokesperson. For example, if Johnson was diagnosed with, say, colorectal cancer or a brain tumor, he still wouldn’t get coverage under Medicaid. South Carolina, like most states, does not provide Medicaid to single, childless adults.
I love one of the comments on the article stating: "Haha... I'd like to see a private insurance company make this decision. Fat chance! They would have let him die."Umm, doesn't this fool realize that the Medicaid program is a government-run program that left to its own devices would have let this man or any other die of breast cancer? They normally don't allow access to the cancer program for men, it is a women-only program. Only because of an "uproar" did this guy luckily get coverage. The next guy many not be so lucky. Just wait until we get universal care.

3 Comments:

Blogger Omnibabe said...

My cousin Dennis died after his second recurrence of breast cancer, which followed a double radical mastectomy. I have a sneaking suspicion that the mortality rate for breast cancer in men is MUCH higher than it is for women.

11:20 PM, August 22, 2011  
Blogger Unknown said...

Please help me for Christ sake

7:54 AM, August 23, 2011  
Blogger Doom said...

Omnibus Driver,

It is. Most men never even get a diagnosis for the disease before it kills them. I still don't understand how they can say it is for women only though. Sure, outreach won't work (at least for me, I simply WILL NOT check my chest for lumps, nor do I allow a colo-rectal screening, or whatever). But should they somehow accident on a diagnosis, and if the guy will take treatment, they have just as much or more obligation to treat men. How about if we make heart conditions a men only club? Same same. That's insane.

3:07 PM, August 23, 2011  

Post a Comment

<< Home