Baldies' Blog began originally in the UK by a 26 year old journalist with a blood cancer on a mission to inform the world about bone marrow donation.

He has since died, and I took on the cause of making cancer care more transparent for everybody.

Cancer is a disease that will touch everybody through diagnosis or affiliation: 1 in 2 men will be diagnosed and 1 in 3 woman will hear those words, "You Have Cancer."

I invite you to read how I feel along my journey and
how I am continuing to live a full life alongside my Hodgkin's lymphoma, with me controlling my cancer, not my cancer controlling me.

I hope that "Baldies' Blog" will prepare you to handle whatever life sends you, but especially if it's the message, "You Have Cancer."

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Monday, September 29, 2008

THE HEALTH CARE BLACK HOLE

Isn’t this special, I thought life was good because I had my transplant postponed until Oct. 1. What happens on Oct. 1? I’ve been disabled for two full years according to the federal government, which entitles me to Medicare Part A and B for a small fee taken directly from social security. These will cover the entirety of my costs for my immunosuppressive drugs.
What’s the problem? My regular insurance company knows. Yes, Highmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield has sent me a benefits questionnaire forcing me to confess my new “windfall,” because they won’t cover a cost that medicare will.
Unfortunately, medicare won’t cover a cost that highmark will. Do you think the two will be battling out this problem between each other? No, they’re going to force it on the middle patient.
I see the health care black hole I’m about to be sucked into. The astrophysicists and first world countries can spend billions of man hours and money on creating a real black hole that will exist a nanosecond, just to see what will happen, but they can’t drag me out of my predicament.
It’s not about the money. I have Aunt B who organizes and fights my bills for me as a hobby. It’s the situation. It’s the principle. I can’t clone Aunt B to be a patient advocate for everybody in my situation. I can’t how wrong this is.

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