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While roughly 83% of adults in the United States will visit a health care provider in the next year, an estimated
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Midland Daily News: Don't take lifeline from cancer patients
April 14, 2018
Reader's view: Don't take lifeline from cancer patients
To the editor:
I was diagnosed with cancer 31 years ago. Today, I'm cancer free. Unless you've gone through this fight yourself or walked through it with a loved one, it may be hard to understand just how difficult fighting can be on the patient and his/her family.
Fatigue, nausea, permanent swelling in your extremities, nerve damage, low blood counts, infections: These are just a few of the symptoms cancer patients and survivors face. I myself am extremely fortunate not to have long-lasting side effects.
When the nausea and other symptoms hit, going to work isn't an option and sadly many cancer patients and survivors must take time off or stop working. That's why a proposal pending in the Michigan Legislature that would require low-income residents to work or complete hours of job training each month to keep their health care coverage in the state's Medicare program is not only unfair, it's potentially deadly.
A significant number of cancer patients and survivors struggle to complete simple tasks, like brushing their teeth. For those individuals, going to work is impossible. Taking away their health coverage because they are too sick or weak to work is wrong and could jeopardize their ability to survive their cancer. I urge Rep. Gary Glenn to stand up for people who will be diagnosed with cancer in Michigan this year and help ensure that those on Medicaid have the coverage they need to help them win their fight against this awful disease.
HEIDI VARNER
Midland