Thousands of Medicare patients have been turned away by their local clinics
Recently a report by Washington Post stated that cancer clinics have rejected thousands of Medicare patients due to recent budget cuts. According to Washington Post, Jeff Vacirca the chief executive of North Shore Hematology Oncology Associates in New York said that if we want to treat patients with expensive chemotherapy drugs we will be out of business in six month to a year. So it’s a choice between staying in business and seeing cancer patients.
Latest cancer drugs now can cost patients up to $35,000 a year while many patients do not have any insurance coverage. Now many cancer patients who are turned away by their local clinics should seek care at hospitals. A recent study by Milliman shows that the chemotherapy in hospitals can cost Federal government $6,500 more a year compared to local clinics. The same study also shows that 66% of Medicare patients receive treatment in their local clinics and not in a hospital. But any time Medicare patients ended up in hospitals they had to pay $650 more out of their pocket compared to a local clinic.
It's unclear at this moment if the hospitals can accept all these cancer patients who have been turned away by their local clinics. Many are also counting on a Federal Program known as 340B that will require the pharmaceutical companies to give discounts to hospitals that treat low income and uninsured patients.
Some cancer clinics are also hoping that the Federal government will provide relief to Medicare patients so they can still see their patients. According to Washington Post, the director of the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorder, Ralph Boccia said that we can’t keep going on without a change for more than a few months and he hoped that there would be some changes as legislators see the impact of budget cuts.
Why not investing in a healthy and nutritional food system instead of expensive drugs and treatments?
45% of Americans are diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lifetimes. Many Americans are also suffering from different chronic diseases and obesity rate is growing drastically. The research studies show that if obesity rate increases as the current rate, the cost of health care by 2018 will increase to 300 billion dollars a year.
Also many studies and research indicate that 90% of times chemotherapy don’t even work and cancer patients are sucked into futile care and become victims who end up paying tens of thousands of dollars for treatment that will not benefit them.
The fact is that the medical industry is turning into a giant corporation run by giant insurance companies, lawyers, accountants and the government.
At the same time, we cannot afford our current health care system and the impact of the budget cuts long term will cost the Federal government even more money.
Also billions of tax dollars have gone to giant agribusiness for subsidizing corn and soy which eventually will end up in processed foods like Twinkies along with other junk such as artificial coloring, additives and preservatives including high fructose corn syrup, MSG and aspartame.
Nutrition, prevention and natural treatment is the key
We need to reverse our path and invest in nutritional diet instead of spending billions of dollars on expensive treatments and drugs which will only make few chemical and pharmaceutical companies richer. The current health care system is owned and operated by giant insurance and pharmaceutical company in favor of corporate profit. Our children’s health is compromised for the sake of corporate profit and with 15 trillion dollar GDP a year we have one of the most additive and least nutritional food systems in the world.
Also many new bacteria and superbugs like CRE are becoming resistant to ALL antibiotics. CRE can mutate and make other common infections untreatable. With all these chronic diseases and superbugs running around, prevention and natural treatments are the key and our current path that requires more use of expensive drugs and treatment is just unsustainable.
A country that can’t even pass its annual budget passes Monsanto’s Protection Act in a blink of an eye
Since the Congress didn’t approve the annual budget for this year, more budget cuts were enforced on many government programs like Medicare as of April 1st. Thousands of Medicare Patients have been turned away by their local clinics because of budget cuts. But somehow it’s such an irony that a country that can’t even pass its annual budget passes Monsanto’s Protection Act in a blink of an eye.
The reality that the right wing conservatives have taken this country hostage and nothing can be officially done until they approve it. The budget cuts are mostly aimed at low income communities and programs like student grants, educational programs, Medicare or Medicate.
So we’ve decided that since we can’t pay our bills we can and should hurt the least fortunate part of our society. By the end of a day it was Mitt Romney who said that 47% of Americans are takers and it was Michele Bachmann who said that is one doesn’t work, they shouldn’t eat.
We’ve turned into a society that gives the biggest bailout of the US history to the richest top 1% “the banksteres” or gives General Electric the power to hire 900 full time accountants to pay no taxes. But along the way we nickel and dime the most venerable part of our society who depend on the governmental programs like Medicare or Medicate.
Related Articles:
http://www.seattleorganicrestaurants.com/vegan-whole-food/chemotherapy-cancer-cells.php
http://seattleorganicrestaurants.com/vegan-whole-food/alternative-cancer-therapies.php
http://www.seattleorganicrestaurants.com/vegan-whole-food/boost-immune-system.php
