The Recession's Impact: Closing The Clinic

60 Minutes: Bad Economy Leaves Cancer Patients Without Health Insurance In Dire Straits

(CBS)  Cancer is advancing on Livia Ralphs, who was recently laid off from her job selling cosmetics.

"It goes from here to here," she explained, pointing out a bulge on the left side of her neck. "You probably see it sticking out."

"So, in terms of the cancerous growth in your neck, the doctors believe it's treatable. But you don't have a way to treat it?" Pelley asked.

"I have no funds. I have no insurance. Nothing," Ralphs replied.

Patients who got the letter, like Helen Sharp, were sent a list of private chemotherapy centers, which leaves them in essence begging for care.

"One drug is almost $50,000. Who can afford that? There's nobody that can afford that unless you’re a billionaire," she told Pelley.

Some of the patients 60 Minutes met are gravely ill. But all future patients are affected, including those with early, highly treatable cancers who would benefit the most.

"Well, I'm sad. Because I know that there is room to serve patients and yet, financially, we can't afford to," UMC's CEO Kathy Silver told Pelley, as she showed him her closed chemotherapy unit, which had treated 40 patients a day for 20 years.

"You have the facility…to save lives. You have people outside the hospital who need to have their lives saved. And you just can't put two and two together?" Pelley asked.

"The financial situation that we find ourselves in caused us to make some decisions that I think all of us, to a person would rather not have made," Silver said.

There are two medical assistance programs for the very poor, like the folks who line up at a Las Vegas building before dawn to apply for state services: there's Medicaid and Clark County medical assistance.

"So if you're poor enough, you're okay?" Pelley asked Silver.

"If you're poor enough you're fine because those patients are being taken care of," she replied.

"If you're rich enough you're obviously fine. So who is falling through the cracks here?" Pelley asked.

"The patients who don't qualify for a social services type of program," Silver said.

"What we're talking about here are people who are making $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 a year and have lost their jobs and therefore lost their insurance?" Pelley asked.

"That’s correct," Silver replied.

"The middle class," Pelley remarked.

"That's correct," Silver said.

[goodJobGibbons]

Las Vegas is full of evil. It killed my father and killed my mother. THey said she had arthritis and she had bone cancer. Go figure, what ever vegas can do to get rid of the population it will do. Gibbons is an idiot. Bush an even bigger #$(%Q and now we - the low income and uninsured population will die at their hands.

Indecently not all of Nevada sucks as bad as Vegas, my suggestion... MOVE WHILE YOU ARE STILL ALIVE

[Renee_E_B]

Thanks for helping me reach Roy - he has passed away.

[Renee_E_B]

Thank you for helping me reach Roy - He has passed away.

[cancersurvivor]

I mailed a check to the Women's Cancer Center the day after I saw this story (to the address above) I received a nice reply from them in the mail today thanking me. Could minutes do some kind of follow up to let us know how many people responded to the clinic? I hope my small contribution will go towards helping some one receive treatment. Thanks to Dr. Spiritos for opening his office and heart to treat these patients. Please support healthcare reform everyone!!!!! you might be the next person to face an illness and need treatment.

[sgillesp]

two comments:
1. I mailed a check to the address for the clinic that has been given on these pages, and it came back, "no such street" - can someone please check into that and update it?
2. why do some people seem to respond to every problem we have by ranting about "illegals," even though rational study of the subject has yielded the facts that it is NOT "illegals" who are causing the health care system to fall apart? And how on earth can it be Obama's fault when he has been in office about 11 weeks?? It seems to me that there is a subset of people in this country who shout "illegals" as the scapegoats for everything (the second thing they shout is "Reid/Pelosi"). Time for everyone else to stand up and get something done around here.

[steveh46a]

"Yes. We have huge healthcare problems that need to be resolved, but I am tired of people comparing US healthcare to Europe and the rest of the world. First of all, we are not the richest nation in the world. "

Actually we ARE the richest nation in the world. We are the richest nation in the history of the world. Don't take my word for it, check the CIA World Factbook. It's unfortunate that someone who claims to be a healthcare provider would be so ignorant as to believe that countries like Portugal, Italy, Finland, and every other developed country in the world can somehow manage to provide health care to every single one of their citizens, but the poor USA just can't do it. Actually, it's a shame that so many people seem to believe that. We can do it, we just lack the will.

[faslehood]

To "Chickenwater" What you said, about chemotherpy that it would not help some of these patients in Nevada that you think are terminal. And what about the ones on dialysis. I had a doctor tell my friend he was terminal. And guess what. His cancer treatment worked. But he had good insurance. If he had your advice. he would be dead. His doctor told him he did not have a chance. And for you to say in your other statement is false to imply or subggest that the chemo, is not affective for these terminally sick people. Are not God? And to knock down Europes heath care. Do you live there? Ask anyone in Europe if that would give up there health care for ours. And the answer is no! And to blame our problems just on the boders is a narrow perception of the overall problem in health care for profit. You are a health care provider. So are you practicing the hipocratic oath. Any ignorance is placed upond the greed that contols it for profit. The question for you? Would you turn down a patient with out any health care and could not afford to pay for it? HMO's kill people for managed profit.. And I am a witness to it. And by the way, Europe has it problems and it isn't a island. And in Holland, Sweden, Demark, It is very exspensive to live there. But have free college and health care and no evictions for not paying a medical bill. What have you done as a heath care provider to solve and help with this problem? Your just complaining that, one small part of the turth. That showed darkness in health care. And you think that it is to ignorant to show for some viewers. People are going to be dead, because they were cut off from there health care. What part of that story you did not understand. It was criminal. Freedom is only what you invest in. Put a number on that. %%%%%%%%

[maryscleareyes]

I am extremely disappointed in 60 minutes. This case did not portray the complete story. A hospital must pay its bills, i.e. the pharmaceutical companies want their money for these chemo drugs. It?s basic math : income minus expenses - if there is no income, and the ?for-profit? pharmaceutical companies want to get paid to make a profit, how can the provider continue to treat for free?

Why did 60 minutes never mention the overpriced pharmaceutical industry? Take the ?for-profit? out of healthcare and we might get somewhere! Why are the drugs in the USA so much more costly than other countries? Look at all the commercials on the TV??.follow the money!

[vanessaroman]

Like most people, I was utterly shocked by this episode of 60 minutes. What's at stake here is not illegal or legal citizens, but the future of a nation. How will we explain to our children that Grandma died because she didn't have enough money to get treated? How will we rationalize this to the 8 year old who is learning about justice and freedom for all at school?
Most disappointing in this show was the complete isolation of the problem. The only solution documented by 60 Minutes was one doctor who spent $100,000 of his own money to set up a free clinic within his private office. Clearly one doctor can not solve this dire problem.
There is a nationwide movement for healthcare. Physicians for a National Health Program is one group working on getting legislation passed. And I'm sure they would have happily agreed to an interview with 60 Minutes had they been asked.
Unfortunately 60 minutes does the job of the corporate media by presenting a heinous problem which scares us and then leaves us distraught and disempowered. I think this may be referred to as "divide and conquer". Let's pull together and recognize that the only people benefiting from this broken system are the elites, not the illegals or uninsured.

[chickenwater]

Consider this: 80% of healthcare costs are spent on 20% of the population

watch the cbs news video about UMC austin ER
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4915099n%3fsource=search_video