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Why Everyone Needs Certainty About Coverage for Cancer Care
By: Jennie R. Crews, MD, MMM, FACP
Updated on May 2, 2020
Cancer doesn’t wait while policymakers debate how best to reform US healthcare. Patients need certainty about coverage for cancer care and they need it now.
At 4:29 PM on May 26, 2016, my husband’s doctor said to him,
“ I have bad news. You have cancer. “
As a medical oncologist, I have delivered those words countless times to my patients. But I now understood in a way I could not before, how this news can turn one’s world on its axis. I have seen the unprecedented uncertainty my patients and their loved ones face when I confirm a cancer diagnosis.
Many decisions have to be made quickly
Decisions have to be made-often quickly:
- What is the best treatment path?
- How will I tolerate the next weeks and months?
- Will I be able to work?
- How will my family cope?
My personal journey after my husband’s diagnosis made me more acutely aware that despite tremendous advances in detecting, diagnosing, and treating cancer, uncertainty remains a potent side effect of the disease.
