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Making cancer survivors of the uninsured

Community Health Programs provide free breast & cervical cancer screenings and treatment for Southeastern Ohio

By Colleen Kiphart
Illustration by Danette Pratt

When Anne* found the lump, she thought little of it. She had
found benign cysts in the past—and paid out of pocket to have them
removed. If this were a movie, a foreshadowing refrain may have
swelled in the background as she did her self-exam, fading to a tenuous
tune as she dismissed it. But there is no soundtrack to life, no warning
sign to tell us that “this time is different.”

Anne was diabetic, and as she needed it more, health insurance became harder to afford and, ultimately, impossible to obtain.

“She was waiting to get a mammogram until she turned 65, when
Medicare would have kicked in,” says Kathy Trace, M.H.A., director
of OU-COM’s Community Health Programs (CHP) and friend of
Anne’s. “She died two days before her 65th birthday.”

According to the American Medical Association, 46 million
Americans are uninsured, which often leads to cycles of self-diagnosis
and self-denial that can be fatal. 

*Names have been changed to protect individual privacy.

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