Cancer patients need fast health care fix

Congress seems to be falling into the familiar trap of separating public policy issues into manageable sound bite chunks. Now that health care reform no longer has a clear path, policymakers are focusing their attention on the economy. For those of us in the real world, though, we know the two issues are inextricable.

As people lose their jobs, so goes their employer-provided health insurance. In fact, for every one percentage point rise in the national unemployment rate, 2.4 million lose their health coverage. For families facing cancer, this stark reality is impossible to ignore.

Cancer patients are quickly labeled by insurers as having a pre-existing condition, which precludes most of them from receiving coverage when they need it most. For those that have lost their jobs and insurance, they have become virtually uninsurable. Even for those with insurance, many see their savings dwindle once diagnosed.

So many of us are one diagnosis away from financial ruin. Congress can go a long way toward fixing the economy by concurrently fixing health care.

Jasmine Almoayed

Fairfax