LA Times Article

People without health insurance are more likely to be diagnosed with advanced stages of cancer and more likely to forgo important screening tests, like mammography and colonoscopy. Cancer survivors are often denied coverage or only offered coverage they can’t afford.

That means that the more than 47 million Americans who lack health insurance are more vulnerable to cancer and less likely to benefit from early detection - which saves lives.

You might think that a presidential candidate who has survived cancer - including candidates Rudolph Giuliani, John McCain and Fred Thompson - would be particularly focused on making sure that Americans have access to preventative health care, cancer treatment or the long-term care that often follows a cancer diagnoses.

But, as the Los Angeles Times points out in today’s edition, while the health care proposals offered by Giuliani, John McCain and Fred Thompson aim to help the growing number of uninsured Americans, the plans they have suggested do not ensure coverage for cancer survivors such as themselves. As the LA Times notes, cancer survivors who have to seek health insurance as individuals would have a particularly hard time securing coverage.

This issue - thanks to articles like this one, a series by Bob Herbert in the New York Times (1st, 2nd, 3rd), new data and a campaign by the American Cancer Society - is finally getting the attention it deserves.

Perhaps for these candidates, it’s just not personal enough.

I was laying in a hospital bed in 1997 in the grips of a cancer diagnosis when I found out I didn’t have health insurance. I’m was really lucky, though, and got some much needed help.

More than 1 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year. Many of them will face it without health insurance. Who is going to help them? Isn’t this the least we should ask of a presidential candidate?

Lance