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Breast Cancer Killing U.S. Women Unable to Afford Health Care
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There are many people suffering—and dying—in this nation from lack of health care, and Rachele Huennekens, AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow, describes how this nation’s growing health care crisis affects women.
Amy, a woman in Pennsylvania, prays for good health. Without health insurance, prayer is her option.
I’ve decided that the next time a lump is found I will NOT be getting the mammogram. I can’t afford it. I pray nothing bad ever happens to my family or myself.
This situation may be much more common among working women today than we realize. Amy, who submitted this story to the AFL-CIO-Working America 2008 Health Care for America Survey, is among thousands of working people across the country who have shared their experiences with America’s broken health care system on the site.
Nearly 17 million U.S. women—including nearly one in four women between ages 19 and 54—were uninsured in 2006, according to AFL-CIO health facts on women.
Sadly, their stories are affirming some chilling national trends. A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine concludes that insurance co-payments are deterring women from getting breast cancer X-ray screenings known as mammograms. The study, conducted by researchers at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, found that screening rates were 8.3 percent lower for women who had co-payments than for women whose insurance coverage paid for the exams in full.
Dozens of responses to the Health Care for America Survey reflect this alarming statistic. Working women are being charged outrageous fees of $100, $300, even up to $1,000 for mammograms, and they simply aren’t able to afford it.
Laura from New York shared her experience:
I was told by my OB/GYN that considering my family background, I am at a very high risk for breast cancer. I went to get a mammogram as prescribed by my doctor. [Afterwards] the company that manages our health costs refused to pay…[and] kept billing me and sending me collection letters for over two years before they finally settled. I have not gone back to get a mammogram since…[and] I know for a fact that several women in my office have also put the test on the backburner because of this same situation.
In California, Gabriela is living with constant fear of breast cancer because she can’t afford a biopsy.
Last September I noticed a lump in my breast, [so] I went to a local clinic…[to get an] ultrasound, [which cost] close to $200. The doctor did see a lump, but without a biopsy they couldn’t tell exactly me what it is. The biopsy cost around $350–$400. Because I couldn’t afford it, I will have to return in six months for another ultrasound….I hate living with this fear of “not-knowing!” I try not to think about it but it’s impossible not to do. Because I’m only 31, I don’t qualify for breast cancer prevention programs that are funded by the state. So all I can do is wait.
The experiences of these women go a long way to show just how badly this nation needs health care reform. Mammograms are widely accepted as a vital preventative procedure for cancer, recommended by the American Cancer Society, for example, for women older than 40 to get annually.
Dr. Amal Trivedi, lead author of the Brown University study, explains:
Mammograms are an essential service for older women, yet many women avoid that service when they are required to pay out-of-pocket. By eliminating co-payments for mammograms, we could get more women tested. More testing would mean earlier breast cancer treatment and improved chances for breast cancer survival.
Ilene, a retired union member from New York who volunteers for a cancer hotline, put it even more clearly on the survey website:
This is one of the wealthiest countries in the world but women are dying needlessly because they are being denied health care.
(Click here to fill out the Health Care for America Survey and tell your health care story. You can vote here on the stories you think make the most impact.)
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