we shouldn't have to be reading about this type of thing

what if jere was your best friend or your mother or your aunt or your sister? how would you feel then?

on one of the latest podcasts of 'this american life' they did a show on urban myths. one segment was: stories immigrants to the usa heard (i guess from other immigrants) that couldn't possibly be true. anyway, all of the stories WERE true. the one that stuck with me or struck me is; we have homeless people in america. i guess in most countries homelessness isn't an issue. well i'm bothered it's a problem for us. i'm ALSO bothered by the lack of heath care coverage for our citizens. NONE OF US SHOULD HAVE TO SUFFER

Gaps in insurance policies make oral drugs too pricey for some cancer patients

By Sandra G. Boodman

Kaiser Health News

When Jere Carpentier learned last year that she had advanced colon cancer -- her third malignancy in a dozen years -- she worried about spending hours in a clinic tethered to an intravenous line, enduring punishing chemotherapy that would make her hair fall out. Her veins ruined by earlier treatments, Carpentier was elated when her oncologist said this time she could avoid needles and take a pill at home that would specifically target the cancer cells and spare her hair. "I let that be the thing that made this okay," she recalled.

But the former human resources manager, who lives in San Jose, soon discovered that her insurer would not pay for the pill called Xeloda, which cost $4,000 per month, because a cheaper IV drug was available. So instead, she underwent surgery to implant a port in her chest through which she received 46-hour-long chemotherapy infusions, mostly at home. One night the device, which included a large needle that constrained her every move, sprang a leak and began emitting a shrill alarm, requiring a race to the emergency room. "It was the scariest thing that happened to me," Carpentier, now 60, recalled, "and I'd been through two cancers." ..........