My reader comment: Im a stage 4 cancer patient and I am terrified. Of dying? No. Of being tortured to death by managed care denying my pain medications and other palliative care, of being forced into an institution where as a transgender person I may be abused and horrifically neglected, to die covered in bruises and untreated excruciating infection, exactly the way my life partner, of 36 years did 5 years ago in a nursing home. This is my second cancer, which appears to be a result of my exposure as a first responder during 9-11. The first cancer rendered me destitute, and all I have is Medicaid managed care for this second cancer. Im disabled, and since no one has survived this type of cancer longer than two years (most live 1 year) I know I will never work again. There is no way I can escape whatever they decide to do to me. This horrific Medicaid Redesign ordered by Governor Cuomo here in NY, cutting Medicaid costs by forcing patients into managed care, has made the lives of the totally disabled into a living hell. My best friend who is nurse doing home care has already lost 11 previously stable patients because the cutbacks in basic home care services caused their deaths. Politicians want to crow that they are saving money cutting Medicaid, the main source of home care services. This has turned the lives of the most helpless and vulnerable into a brutal, short existence. This story unusually ends with our silencing by death. Please continue to tell the story, because we cannot.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 07:26:40 +0000
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