How exactly are cancer survivors to survive the coming economic calamities that face us? How will those people who have battled for their lives overcome the economic challenges to their very survival? I'm talking to myself, as a fellow cancer survivor.
I'm all in favor of finding cancer cures and am indebted to City of Hope National Cancer Research Hospital in Duarte, CA for literally saving my life. Likewise, I support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (lls) for their active support of cancer researchers and am helping them to do more funding. And I think the StandUp for Cancer event at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood in September which was simulcast on the major tv networks was a fantastic move forward.
But there are some much more critical issues for everyday people. Survival.
For myself, I am forever grateful for the California State-mandated insurance program MRMIP and the ADAP program which supplies my HIV meds. If I lose either one, I'm pretty much DOA.
When I was first diagnosed with HIV in 2005, I subsequently lost my insurance, which was a very frightening experience, just one month following the diagnosis. In what must have been miraculous, I was able to be one of the chosen few to get approved into the MRMIP program and got onto the Kaiser Permanente coverage, which ultimately saved my life from cancer, which I contracted due to the HIV. The ADAP program provides me with nearly all of my meds covered, without which I could not survive.
These are literally my lifelines. In the face of the economic crash we're facing, who knows how long these programs will be in place.
If the ADAP funding dries up, whether it's cancer or AIDS, I'm pretty much sunk, knowing what the cost of the meds are which are keeping me alive now. As my personal and business financial structure collapsed during my cancer battle, I could not even begin to consider how to pay for the full cost of the meds.
We need to take a look at the vast number of layoffs across the country and the fact that these people will not be able to even think about getting onto the super expensive COBRA or any other healthcare plan. Then what?
While searching for a cure for cancer is very important, for the vast majority of people, the problem is facing life-and-death choices and mere survival. I think this is the dialogue most people are going to be engaging in over the coming months as the economic catastrophe resulting from the past eight years of the current administration leaves people literally facing serious challenges.
The stress of cancer therapy and becomming a "survivor" is physically and mentally torturous. To heap on financial stress is sometimes what leaves people thinking "why fight it."
I know. I asked this question myself, but couldn't give up, even knowing the financial hardship that I would find myself in following treatment.
Let's fight for the people and families and friends who are facing these issues right now.
Change.org will soon be launching a blog for cancer issues and I really want to support them in helping to mobilize people on behalf of those who can't fight for themselves.
I know in my battle with Stage 4 Burkitt's Lymphoma, I had to have people fight FOR me. Now it's my time to fight for others!
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