Deadly Delay

Of course blacks are going to be diagnosed late - they're ALWAYS late!

I can not believe all the racist and prejudice comments. The aricle was about medical care and late diagnoses. People need health care and good health care regardless of their race or econical level. I am my brothers keeper. This great country was build on people coming to this land for a better chance. Look back to Plymiouth Rock. This great country allow all the comments on the internet. So you do have a right to your opinion but try to respond to the articles content. Poverty is the root of poor service to anyone. Welfare to the poor or big corporations is the American way.
the research on breat cancer has bee primarily on middle class white women. Therefore, research nees to be conducted by sociasl economical with the whole population then stratified for the other factors of class, acessibbility, geographical location and attitude, medical's community's attitude of care, profit bearing treatment, and patient experience with heath care, and of coure the fear factor of sickness and old age.
i am an upper class African American living the gret city of NY. I am a retired principal and I have been frugal and have amassed money. Yet my money could have not saved my life. My life was saved because of the FREE medical plan that came with 40 years of employment with the City. My life was saved by dedicated doctors of an HMO who cared and treated me like a valued Chil of God! I was a type A and I had to reinvent myself so tht I could LIVE. I no longer controll things and realized that only
god is in control. At first I was angry because I nerver drank,smoked, ofr drugged and I had cancer. I realised someone was going to have so I accepted my lot in life. I really believe all these hormones, pesstisides added to the food are responsible for the increase in cancer. As a result I have changed my priorities and i spend my money on truly organic food. I grow some of my own vegetables and herbs. I pray, treat other with the greatest of kindness and respect, and help people to empower themselvesto reach their fullest potenial when they interact with me. Since I know God is soverign I get out of the wy and allow God to do what is needed. Before my cancer I thought it was all about me. It is about the cosmos and human beings. All God's creatures are good. Let us find the answers for the good of the universe which includes all kinds os humans. Please coontinue to do the research because 20 years ago I would be writing this comment. Please cdontinue to find better ways humankind can exist.

You sir or madam, trestles25, personify some of the reasons why black people lash out in anger. I will not sanction any racist over-generalizations about whites made by fellow African-Americans, but at the same time I REFUSE to tolerate the same coming in my direction from any one else. You know what's not right? How you claim to be upset are tired of being blamed for things "you" didn't do, yet your entire diatribe is laced with "facts" that are little more than sweeping stereotypes, gross over-generalizations, slanted characatures of the truth, and some outright falicies. You sir, in your fiery response have demonstrated and confirmed the type of thinking and attitude that spurs many African-Americans, whether tactfully or not, to still take issue with the socio-political identity of this country. You are tired? You have no clue what it means to be tired. I am tired of hypocrites like you who get upset when anyone mentions racism or discrimination, and then turn around spew the type of banter that personifies both. I am tired of being accused of getting a free ride or having things handed to me when, because of those perceptions, I have to work twice as hard as others to be seen as equal. I am tired of the ignorance( whether feigned or real) of how I am suppossed to "get over" 400 years of oppression, murder, and explotation because it's in the past. You need to understand the dynamics of history. The past is the foundation for the present and the future, how you expect 4 centuries to be undone in less than one is amazing, but that's for another conversation. You sir, are the epotimy of the modern day racist, masking the same old hatred in thin veils of pseudo-intellect and arm chair politi-speak.
You keep of the work, and we'll continue to run in place as a country on these issues.

First of all, I pay taxes just like you do so it wouldn't be a free ride at your expense. Second, the tests I am referred to are not exotic, they are recommended screening for cancers-colon, breast-, blood tests, etc. And the programs you talk about are not that easy to obtain. If you understand that private ins. is out of reach for millions of working and retired people then you are finally getting the point. As I said my monthly premium is one quarter of my monthly income, ;lus all other expenses for testing, persriptions, etc. Its not affordable. And health care is a federal problem, you pay prevent now its la lot less expensive for the gov't later when they are paying for treatment of a preventable disease thru hosp. premiums for medicare patients higher to compensate.

I am American living overseas. Here we have National health Insurance, which also applies to any foreigners resident (working/studying/married to a local) here. While no medical diagnosis is infalible as I'm sure many posts will document, overall nobody who who needs treatment is denied it nor has to worry about being uninsured and suffering delays in treatment or the risk of being bankrupted by the cost.

If the theory is that having no National Health Insurance in the USA gives the US the best medical care in thw world, than why:

1) Do so many Americans lack access to proper health care?
2) Does medical tourism exist and many insurance plans in the US now encourage and fund overseas treatment?
3) Do many locals from here return here FROM THE USA to seek medical treatment of all sorts (and it's not a language issue either)?!?

I have no comment on the race issue; it's one I find too sad and complex that it should ever be an issue. Instead I note only that if Americans really do care about each other in the way that they should then they should stand up and demand universal national health care.

Maybe it's relevant to point out that the funcing of this is a progressive effective tax. Higher earners not only pay a greater amount in absolute terms, but also a higher percentage of their income into the programme. As a relatively higher earner I sometimes look at that line and object slightly in my mind to the sum of money that I pay in for the rare times I actually see a doctor. Then in the rare instance when I do go to a hospital and/or pass by one and see the people receiving treatment I see no other way. It's not communism nor even socialism. It's not against any capitalist system as most hospitals are for profit and so encouraged to provide the best service (treatment) possible in order to attract customers (patients) to their facilities. It's simply good government and one of the best representations of good government, family values or anything else one would like to sum it up as. Nothing is perfect nor will it ever be, but that should not stop anyone from trying to make it as good as it can be!

I am a white, anglo-saxon, middle-class woman who worked for the Fire Dept. for 25 years and recently had to retire on disability, yet I am paying a huge monthly premium for insurance, have a large co-pay and deductible, and I have to pay 20% of the total bill. I can't afford to have all the tests that are recommended and have to pick and choose which are most important. The only thing that will keep me healthy is affordable health care and that means universal insurance. I am no the only one. There working poor, retired elderly, etc. don't havequalify for hree ins. so what do we do?

As a person who was indeed diagnosed late. I can assure you it happens. I was treat ed 3 years for what I was told was an anal fissure. I was given medication and was never told how to use it. Not by my doctor, nurse, or pharmacist. During a colonoscopy it was learned that I didn't have an anal fissure. What I had was stage 4 colon cancer. and I had insurance. Now does it matter if I'm black or white. Had I received the proper treatment, I could have been spared the painful radiation treatments, the botched surgery by a intern, a second surgery to correct what the intern did, and a third surgery a year later. Folks while you're getting all bent out of shape over this and that race. People of all races, colors and creeds are dying. Right now while you batter back and forth, some elderly person is trying to decide whether and how to pay their heating bill, purchase needed medicine, or put food on the table. A mother is trying her best to get her sick child to the hospital. There people right now in trouble. People who are lost, afraid, and alone. And all we can do is sit at our computers and play the my race is better than your race game?

Okay, technically, 495.5-billion dollars, so far. That's still allot of money that could have been better spent, especially in the midst of a health-care crisis that predates the ill-conceived invasion and has probably caused much more death and sorrow than 9/11 (which Iraq had nothing to do with, anyway).

Posted By: pyramid116 @ 02/17/2008 10:46:01 PM Comment: I don't like paying Health Insurance premiums any more than you do. But that's far better than some general universal health coverage idea that has been proven a failure in every country in which it's ever been tried. Long lines, and a general decline in the quality of care. Try getting some simple medical procedure done in Britain today, or anywhere else in
Europe when they were having this debate, and tell me how that goes.
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While I share your skepticism about socialized medecine, I thing that the relatively simple procedures are not the issue. Those seem to get handled rather well, if you make allowance for the delays in getting service due to the fact that care is no loger rationed. The real problem lies with the more difficult procedures and therapies. They tend to disappear when the economic incentive is removed. Medical research and innovation suffers too insofar as the incentive is greatly diminished. The talent tends to flow to those areas and disciplines that are rewarded.