My Feelings on Healthcare

This is a sensitive issue for me.  One of my immediate family members was diagnosed with cancer ten days after his twentieth birthday.  He had surgery and radiation therapy.  He had (and still has) health insurance.  It did not cover all the expenses.  Living cancer free does not mean you are free of the expense incurred from getting sick.  For one year you must get scanned at least every three months to make sure the cancer has not come back.  You should get these scans at least once a year after that.  Those don't come cheap.  The day after his daughter was born, he found out that the radiation therapy damaged his hip resulting in osteo-necrosis, or death of the bone.  His hip was literally crumbling away.  After six months of mind-numbing, debilitating pain he was forced to have his hip replaced at the age of twenty-four.  With insurance his medical bills are huge.

I do not claim to understand the complexity of the healthcare issue.  I passionately feel that it is not okay for someone who develops cancer to fight for their life and then fight to get out of debt.  I just don't understand.  My loved one took care of himself and now works hard to take care of his family.  I put a random Facebook message about healthcare because I don't know how to help him and I was frustrated by the debate.  I don't yet know what the right change is, but something has to change.  When you beat cancer your life should start again; how can you live when debt is strangling you?