Should Americans with Cancer Go Bankrupt?
In the republican primaries in 2012 there was a moment when the crowd watching cheered at the idea of simply letting folks without insurance die of cancer. As much as this was disturbing to most Americans and much of the world it is not the only issue related to cancer patients in America. The financial toll a cancer diagnosis can bring, will increase the chance of the patient filing bankruptcy. A new study published in Health Affairs states that a patient with cancer diagnosis is 2.65 times more likely than people without cancer to file for bankruptcy. This begs the question "should Americans go bankrupt because they have a catastrophic illness?" In a nation as rich as ours and with the quality of our medical experts, why should this be the case? First off we may have the some of the best and brightest minds in the medical world here in America. This issue is access to this care can be very expensive. One reason for this is the sometimes insane cost of cancer drugs. Ma...