Six years ago today, I was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma. After six months of chemotherapy & a month of radiation treatments, here I still am.
The Affordable Care Act paid for the treatments that saved my life. But Republicans are still attacking it.
...and looking well!
I simply don't understand the US attitude to universal healthcare. Where I live in Luxembourg, a government department, the CNS, acts as the health "insurer". The 'premiums', a percentage of your salary, are deducted from your monthly pay-cheque. When you need medical treatment, you have to pay for it then send the receipted bill to the CNS who refund most or all of what you were charged.
For inpatient hospital treatment, the bill is sent directly to the CNS by the hospital so the patient never even sees it. I had major abdominal surgery the Christmas before last and all I had to pay was 20€ a day for "board and lodging" at the hospital. Despite what GOPers in the US claim, there are no waiting lists here worth mentioning!
The tumour was found late one Thursday afternoon during a routine colonoscopy and a biopsy sample taken. Analysis of blood and urine was done Friday morning and the results delivered to me on Friday afternoon by email. I had to stop some medication to prepare for the CT scan so that was not done until the Monday morning; I then had to wait in radiography for 40 minutes to get the results. The biopsy came back on Wednesday morning and on Wednesday afternoon, six days later, I was sitting with the surgeon discussing how the tumour would be removed.
My tumour had been diagnosed as non-cancerous before I went in to have it removed but the surgeon said that if there had been any doubt, I would have been on the operating table that same week!
I'd call that a damned good service!
