Take a look at this amazing video put out by the Corzine campaign, in it Republican challenger Chris Christie argues with a cancer survivor about mandates that the State requires insurance providers to cover.
Christie believes in a mandate free state and he would eliminate all or most mandates proposed or enacted by the state.
The unseen women says to Christie that her daughter is at the same age now, as she was when she had her first cancer surgery. Christie responds to her by saying that her daughter would be an "exception" if she has indeed developed cancer in her 20's.
Obviously Christie must not know a lot about cancer and it's genetic impact on patients and their children, siblings or other family members. Otherwise he would not have talked over this woman or argued about the need for the woman's daughter to be screened for cancer.
Having multiple members of my family diagnosed with cancer over the past few years, I know full well the importance of early detection in the fight against cancer. Many cancers, like breast and colon-rectal cancer, have been found to be genetic in nature, meaning that there are genes that are passed along from parents to children that make the child of a cancer patient more likely to develop the disease than children from non-cancer patients.
Mandating that insurance companies provide genetic testing for cancer patients and survivors saves lives and money in the long run.
Christie should know the facts before he speaks about cancer and its effects on families in the future.
4 comments:
Christie's mother is a Breast Cancer survivor of 20 years ... so he should know the effect on families.
Anonymous,
If that is so (and I have no reason to doubt you) then Christie at best is callous and at worst ignorant.
I lean towards ignorant.
Cancer research has come a long way over the past 20 years and the roll that genetics plays is huge.
To tell a cancer surviving mother that her daughter should not receive a mammogram because of her age is ludicrous.
Early stage detection of cancer proves to be less costly to insurance companies than if left undiagnosed until later stages of development.
Christie should know and understand this if some one in his family has been stricken with this disease in the past.
In my opinion, insurance companies should be mandated to provide early detection services to their customers, whether it is a mammogram or colonoscopy.
To rely on the law of averages in order to save the insurance company money does not have the best interests of the patient or their families in mind.
The other local blog I check out had a post about this:
http://moremonmouthmusings.blogspot.com/
Not saying either is right or wrong -- just thought you would like to check out if you didn't already.
Anonymous,
Irregaurdless of what videos Christie puts out in order to counter Gov. Corzine on this issue, the bottom line is that he still supports the insurance industry and the insurance industry does not want to pay for mammograms for preventative screenings.
Here's what the Star-Ledger has to say about it.
http://blog.nj.com/njv_tom_moran/2009/09/breast_cancer_becomes_a_curiou.html
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