Missouri - "Good Insurance" Means Depending On Bake Sales and Garage Sales To Cover Medical Costs

[TomCADem]

I can only imagine how bad Ben's family's situation would have been if they had bad insurance, as opposed to what they describe as "good insurance."

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Ben began chemotherapy treatments on June 8, and he just completed his third round at the end of July. He is scheduled to begin his next round in the next one to two weeks. This time, chemotherapy will be combined with simultaneous radiation treatments. Initially, his doctor expected him to go through six to 12 months of treatment, but hopefully, it will be closer to the six month mark, Jim said. While a recent MRI showed the cancer was responding positively to treatment, a full-body scan this week will determine exactly how much longer therapy will last.

While the therapy may be beating the cancer, it hasn't been easy on Ben.
"Dr. Bergamini told us that it's like swimming through sewage to escape a forest fire," Jim said. "The sewage will make you sick, but if you don't swim through it, the fire will kill you."

Since beginning chemotherapy, Ben has experienced nausea, fever and mouth sores. Some cycles of the chemo have left him unable to eat for days; some cycles have had few side effects. Ben has usually spent a couple days of each cycle receiving inpatient treatments before moving home for the remainder of the five days, Jim said. However, when he begins the double whammy of chemotherapy and radiation later this month, he will most likely have to spend more time in the hospital.

To help the Wallis family offset the costs of out-of-pocket insurance and medical treatments not covered by insurance, as well as travel expenses to and from St. John's Hospital, their friends at Sacred Heart have set up a fundraiser benefiting the family.

While Jim says his family is lucky to have good insurance coverage and is in no way destitute, this fundraiser will help defray realized costs that the family has incurred and will incur in upcoming months.

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"I feel good having all these benevolent people unify to meet my cause," he said. "I am really appreciative of what they are doing, and have greatly benefited from their help.

"I wish them the best of wishes."

If you would like more information about donating items for the bake sale or garage sale, or setting up a home-based business booth, contact Peggy Leicht at [e-mail].

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[LibDemAlways]

1. While I realize that the people who organize these types of fundraisers

are well-intentioned and that the money raised is appreciated, there is something very wrong about the entire concept of charity fundraisers for medical expenses. When a teenager in my town was recently battling cancer (she has since died) a local band organized a fundraiser to help defray medical expenses. It was a nice gesture but should not have been necessary. The last thing a family in that situation needs is to worry about how to pay the bills.

[TomCADem]

2. Yet, So Many "Liberals" Are Taking A Bush-Like Approach - Single Payer Or Nothing

President Obama's reforms will require that preventive care be provided for free or at nominal cost, and it will prohibit high deductible policies that often require people like this family to go into financial crisis as they try to pay for uncovered costs. Also, it will prohibit insurers from dropping coverage or refusing coverage based on pre-existing conditions. Yet, many people insist that unless they get single payer, they oppose any of these improvements.

There are problems that need to be fixed, and if these folks had their way, even Medicare would not have been passed, because it also fell short of universal care.