War On Cancer, Will We Win?

By Katie Casavant
Every day there is another person lost to the battle of cancer. In the more than thirty years that we have seen overcome the less destructive treatments of the disease this could be avoided. It is not just will power that may be lost, but an overall decline in morality has occurred in the last several years related to this progress made.

Earlier in 2009, Barack Obama vowed to "launch a new effort to conquer a disease that has touched the life of nearly every American". This would expand a "war on cancer" first declared by Richard Nixon in 1971, the National Cancer Act.

Still, there are disparities in Cancer incidence. Related to the mortality and survival in relation to race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Unfortunately, residents of poorer counties have a higher cancer death rate than residents in more affluent counties. Why is this? To put it simply, poorer people are facing more obstacles to obtaining and using health insurance and often will not seek help if they cannot afford it.

Cancer Institutes such as The Cancer Treatment Centers of America are privately funded hospitals. My question is, where is the immediate coverage for patients that cannot afford substantial self-cost pay rates without the medical benefits needed? I spoke with Whitley Graham.

"Typically, the cost for treatment is covered by the patient's medical benefits. Without medical benefits the self-cost pay can be substantial" Graham stated.

These people who lack access to healthcare are more likely to go undiagnosed and die of cancer than others who have easy access to healthcare. It is not just poorer people that are suffering from the affects of this disease. Even accounting poverty rates, some racial groups, e.g. African Americans, American Indians/Alaskan Natives have a lower five-year survival rate than non-Hispanic Whites.

Last year my mother was diagnosed with Leukemia. I am lucky to be able to have the family healthcare to help with these medical benefits we needed, but what if we did not have that? She would not be cancer free as she is now, and just one year later with a first stage detection of the disease.

According to SEER Program Data, which stands for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results, poorer counties have the lowest survival rates.

The facts are that cancer education can often be irrelevant and outreach efforts are insensitive to many poor people. The fatalism about cancer prevails among the poor and prevents them from gaining quality healthcare.

All of these factors bring up the social injustice in the matter of cancer. In addition poverty and culture, social injustice such as racism are critical factors in creating and maintaining disparities. The history of one racial group can determine the socioeconomic status of that group. It has been determined that African Americans are less likely to receive standard treatments for cancer even with the same insurance and economic status. This is what I do not understand. There is no reason to deny someone of the same treatments of another because of their socioeconomic status.

We know that there is much disconnect between what we discover and what is delivered to all Americans in the form of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. These disconnects are all parts of these disparities which can all be prevented.

What we need to be doing is offering immediate coverage that is under-insured for a diagnosis of cancer so that no person will go untreated or undiagnosed for that matter. In the areas which cancer is very common, we should be focused on providing relevant education to those people and giving them quality, as well as easy, access to healthcare. Systems that monitor treatment according to standards of care should be established and rid of the bias in healthcare. Every individual, no matter what his or her status, needs to be responsible for promoting his or her own health.

Research studies should be supported to determine the economic cost of cancer. We need to measure this cost to the nation of treating cancer and inform the public about these aspects of the economics of healthcare.http://ezinearticles.com/?War-On-Cancer,-Will-We-Win?&id=5464229