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Steph,
Thank you! You bring up a very valid point and one that I am planning on using next week. The costs of a cancer diagnosis are catastrophic in some cases even with the absolute best insurance because there are costs that are not covered. Loss of income from work is a huge problem.
I hesitate to bring this up but a great concern of the advocate group & my local oncologists is that many insurance companies use the government guidelines for their reimbursement rates. Will this cut trickle down into HMO's and private insurers? Will these cuts make the private insurers lower their rates and put more of the burden of the costs onto the patient? Will the co-pay's/premiums increase dramatically to the patients that have insurance? Someone has to help pay for the losses. Will it be us? Can the pharmacutical companies help out? Do we want them to cut the costs of the drugs at the expense of them losing research dollars?
It is a huge problem that I certainly don't have answers to. So, I will just try to do my little part and hopefully help the ones that need the help the most.
Thanks again Steph...I can't agree with you more.
Peace, Ruth
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