Tuesday, May 13, 2008

New Patient Bill

In recent weeks I have been seeing articles and stories about the insurance companies trying to cut back on coverage on cancer surgeries and more importantly, breast cancer surgeries. They are trying to make mastectomies an outpatient surgery, which would send the woman home the same day. This is unacceptable! My wife had a double mastectomy and I know first hand how rough of a time it was for her. This is an extremely tough thing for a woman to deal with both physically and emotionally. It was brought to my attention of a proposed bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act, which will require Insurance Companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about eliminating the 'drive-through mastectomy' where women are forced to go home just a few hours after surgery, against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached. Lifetime has started an online petition that will be sent to Congress. Please take a couple of minutes to go to the site and sign the petition, you only need to give your name, email, and zip code. Aren’t the women in our lives worth it!

Here is the link to the Lifetime petition:
http://www.mylifetime.com/community/my-lifetime-commitment/breast-cancer/petition/breast-cancer-petition

2 comments:

*madi* said...

Oh my gosh! I can't believe insurance companies would be so oblivious! Any person with a brain can see that mastectomy patients need time to recover in the hospital. That is a major surgery! This petition has to be passed!

Madi

Anonymous said...

That is horrific and deplorable.