Natoma Canfield wrote President Obama a letter. She has cancer, has no insurance, and has worries. Since, he has dog-eared her sob story, using Canfield as the centerpiece for ObamaCare’s touted health care reform.
While he’s back on the campaign trail, back on the stump, back to using Canfield as an example of why ObamaCare must happen, Canfield is in a hospital in Cleveland receiving free care.
Though Canfield’s sister Connie Anderson said her sibling is afraid she’ll lose her house and Obama warned at an Ohio rally Monday that the patient is “racked with worry” about the cost of tests and treatment, she is already being screened for financial help.
She may be worried but the Cleveland Clinic says it isn’t necessary. Canfield is already being considered for assistance, state medicaid, or even charity care. Cleveland Clinic also said they will not be putting a lien on her home.
In other words, without a government takeover of health care, Canfield is still being treated for cancer without insurance in a system touted by Obama and Democrats as completely broken. With all those sick people supposedly out there not getting treated, Obama couldn’t find one?
“She was very sick,” Obama said. “She expects to face more than a month of aggressive chemotherapy. She is racked with worry not only about her illness but about the costs of the tests and the treatment that she’s surely going to need to beat it.”
Yet while being ‘racked with worry’, she’s still not being asked to pay for it.
Cleveland Clinic offers personal guides to patients like Canfield who are concerned about payment to try to match them up with programs that can provide full or partial assistance. One option is state Medicaid coverage, which Canfield did not have when she was admitted. Another is charity care that is routinely provided by the hospital, which is a nonprofit. Cleveland Clinic reported providing $99 million in charity care in 2008.
Charity care? Natoma Canfield must not need an unnecessary amputation, a common practice Obama said back in August that doctors regularly perform in order to rake in the reimbursements.
But just in case, keep an eye on your feet Natoma. You never know about those charitable doctors.
March 16th, 2010 at 11:42 am
I wonder what it’s like to be used as a tool by a tool?
March 16th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Read the woman’s letter.
Despite a 10 to 1, premiums to payout ratio, her insurance company raised her rates by 40%.
Quit apologizing for the corporate insurance scum that raise rates, deny coverage, and find anyway possible to maximize their bottom line at the expense of hard working people.
If we had a private health insurance industry that worked, there would be no need for reform.
We don’t though, and despite the lunatic rantings of reactionary ideologues like this author, this president has taken on the corporate s****ds.
And spare me your free market bs. the free market is designed to become not free as soon as a member becomes dominant in a market they use their dominance to kill competition. Go Obama.
March 16th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
many dont get that free care. i live in a different state. some here die waitng
March 16th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Tara,
You’re still blaming Obama I can see that. Poor woman, she’s sick and now it’s Obama’s fault because she might get better. Boo hoo!
You are a scoundrel and your style of yellow journalism matches your jaundiced view of common compassion. Which one is it? You’re angered because she’s without insurance and getting help or that she’s getting free care? I don’t see what you have to complain about.
Sounds to me like you hate anyone who gets health care without paying insurance premiums. Your story is nothing but cold-blooded cynicism directed toward folk who cannot afford insurance premiums. You’re pissed because someone else is paying for it and you think that she should die. She’s faking it right? You and others like you think she should get off her lazy butt, find a job, and buy insurance. You and other dysfunctional conservatives and republicans who blazon “I got mine this way so you have to get yours the same way”.
Stick to writing obituaries. Your article is inhumane and reeks of the ultra-right crap too many of you have been digesting for too long.
March 16th, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Shannon,
It’s not becoming calling someone a tool when you yourself are a tool too.
March 16th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Incorrect: It’s not becoming,…
Correct: It’s unbecoming,…
March 16th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
[...] plays on Americans' fearsSan Francisco ChronicleExaminer.com -ABC News (blog) -Right Punditsall 993 news [...]
March 17th, 2010 at 7:51 am
I love mizdaice
March 17th, 2010 at 9:51 am
Truth is, in most countries with socialized medicine she wouldn’t stand a chance.
A few years down the line, cancer patients will receive a pill for the pain and an Obama T-shirt to be buried in.
March 17th, 2010 at 9:55 am
I could probably make a killing marketing Obama shrouds. A picture of the one with the words NO HOPE!!! emblazoned on the top.
$29.99 in Missouri. The other 56 states need to add 8% sales tax.
March 17th, 2010 at 10:00 am
Ever think maybe this woman is receiving free care now just BECAUSE she is in the national spotlight? Simply because the health care industry/insurance industry AND that pesky GOP INDUSTRY doesn’t want us regular Americans to believe anything that big bad wolf Obama says! She’s not in trouble…LOOK, she’s getting FREE HEALTH CARE!! But what about the thousands of others that have NOT written letters to the President and STILL are being denied coverage, receiving insane rate increases and DYING because their insurance companies won’t cover a pre-existing condition.
HEALTH CARE REFORM NOW!
March 17th, 2010 at 10:02 am
“Despite a 10 to 1, premiums to payout ratio, her insurance company raised her rates by 40%.”
10 to 1???
Couldn’t she have written a check and foregone insurance all together?
March 17th, 2010 at 10:09 am
Kristin, take a moment to think about it.
Even if her insurance company raised her rates to 15K a year, they’re probably paying ten times that for her care. Still a deal!!!
Perhaps it’s the runaway cost of health care which is the problem and not the insurance industry.
You’re exorcising the wrong demon.
March 17th, 2010 at 10:11 am
Flying monkey – I doubt she could just “write a check” for her leukemia treatment. $10,000 in premiums & out of pocket costs, but when the insurance company has to actually pay out, they find a loophole to snake through and only pay $900. See below for the costs involved in treating leukemia.
Leukemia, cancer of the blood and bone marrow, is a benzene-related illness that can be very difficult to treat. Just like any type of cancer, chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery are common methods of care. The cost of leukemia treatment can be overwhelming. The average cost of just one round of chemotherapy is approximately $150,000. Unfortunately, many patients require several rounds of chemotherapy to achieve success. Chemotherapy also requires comprehensive support and after care treatment, which can include special antibiotics, injections, blood transfusions, and more.
Some patients living with leukemia may also require a bone marrow transplant. The average cost of this treatment is $250,000 or more. In many cases, patients may require additional treatment after this procedure. Other costly procedures, such as a splenectomy to remove the spleen, may also be required. Additional costs for transportation, hospitalization, supportive care, and other expenses may also be necessary to care for a loved one with a benzene related illness.
Source:
http://www.benzene-illness.com/html/medical-expenses.html
March 17th, 2010 at 10:23 am
So you want to pay what?
A couple of grand and have the insurance company pick up the tab?
Your post proves my point. Even if she’s paying 20K for insurance, she’s getting several hundreds of thousands of dollars in care. That’s a deal!!!
Obama has admitted that there’s billions of dollars in health care fraud and has yet to address that. He has also failed to address tort reform.
March 17th, 2010 at 10:27 am
You take a moment to think about it.
$15,000 per year and she’s been healthy for 10 years. That’s $150,000 she’s paid in to the insurance company (and these figures, of course, are not actual) for 10 healthy years. So now that she’s sick, well, no – we can’t pay for your treatment, we’re only going to pay $900. What happens to all that money that she’s paid into the insurance company? Multiply that by the thousands of people that insurance company covers. People that are sick, and people that aren’t sick. The insurance company can afford to pay for her treatment, they just don’t want to lose their profits. I agree that health care costs are outrageous and also need attention – but part of that high cost of medical treatment comes from yet ANOTHER insurance industry – malpractice insurance. Yes, A LOT of things need reformed in this country, but health care reform is a good start. At least he’s doing SOMETHING. Go OBAMA!!
March 17th, 2010 at 10:36 am
The cost of insurance premiums is set by the cost of health care. Let’s treat the symptoms first and see what happens to those costs.
Fraud and tort reform!!!
Insurance companies run on a 2 or 3% profit margin. Much less than most big industries.
March 17th, 2010 at 10:50 am
yeah monkey.
the money is getting pi$$ed off into nowhere.
But thats allright.
The way he sees it. Its a fckng bottomlesss pit where America just pulls these dollars out there butts ?
He and his vision of how wealth is created, produced, and brought to the market is flat out wrong.
Community leader ?
I wouldnt trust the schmuck with my last most important dollar
March 17th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
So this cancer victim has to rely on Medicaid or chartity to get treatment? This is the reason we need universal insurance coverage. What kind of country do we live in where someone has to rely on the handouts of others to get treatment when they are seriously ill.
March 18th, 2010 at 2:09 am
“So this cancer victim has to rely on Medicaid or chartity…
“This is the reason we need universal insurance coverage.”
Medicaid = Universal Insurance Coverage
Hello!!!