Wanted: Husband with Canadian health care

[Sapphire Blue]

Wanted: Husband with Canadian health care
By CHERIE BLACK
P-I REPORTER

Me: Writer, artist, teacher ... mother of two almost-grown sons ... vegetarian (but you don't have to be). Loves animals (two large dogs and three cats), gardening, house projects. The beach. Books. Travel. Financially solvent except for absurdly expensive health insurance premiums and medical costs.

You: Age 45 to about 57. Canadian citizen living in Vancouver, B.C., or willing to relocate there. Cancer patient or survivor. Open-minded. Bit of a risk taker. Warm hearted but not clinging. Bald OK.

It's not your typical posting of someone looking for a date. Granted, Jeanne Sather is looking for love and a best friend, according to this posting on her blog, assertivepatient.com. But what she was suggesting on the post was that she would like to marry a Canadian man so she could gain access to that country's publicly funded health-care system.

"The profile was meant to be funny and a political statement," Sather, 52, said one morning at a bookstore coffee shop near her Ravenna home. "Now it's taken a life of its own."

Sather was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998 and underwent a mastectomy. One year later, doctors found another cancerous lump. In 2001, the cancer spread to her bones and she's been receiving continuous chemotherapy ever since. She also was diagnosed with melanoma earlier this year.

She estimates more than half of what she receives monthly in disability and child support goes toward her $800-a-month health insurance premium, and is still only a portion of what it costs to treat her disease. She said treating her cancer, which has now spread to her bones, is about $300,000 a year. She said she pays more than $20,000 of that out-of-pocket.

(snip)

She was featured on several Canadian radio stations explaining her cause. Her story was also picked up by filmmaker Michael Moore and is featured on his "Sicko" documentary Web site (michaelmoore.com/sicko). The documentary praises the Canadian health care system. Sather said she hasn't seen the movie.

(snip)

Realistically, Sather knows that if she manages to find her soul mate, the immigration process is lengthy and won't immediately solve her financial burden. And she said she would never really marry a man just to get health insurance. She simply wants more people to be aware of the financial and emotional burden of cancer, which she does through her blog and by teaching other cancer patients how to blog about their experiences and the best places to look for information.


The full article is available @ http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/333740_cancermatch01.html

[provis99]

1. Hmm. Will there be a surge in American mail-order brides for Canadians?

Laughable now, but 20 years down the turnpike, with Republicans and DLCers in charge, just wait and see...

[aquart]

9. Laughable? NO!

I recommend every American to start arranging marriages with Canadians who own land in central Canada.

[liberaldemocrat7]

12. I have a Canadian girlfriend but we love and live in the good old USA USA USA

LOL

[whistle]

2. Wanted: Mistress who has a husband with Canadian health care insurance

[never_get_over_it]

3. You'll need the insurance

once the husband finds out - thanks for the good laugh!!!!

[liberalhistorian]

4. While the snicker factor is obvious, this does bring up a very

important aspect of our whole health care "insurance" mess in this country. And that is, why are so many Americans dependent on the status of a romantic relationship for access to and affordability of health care?

I've been uninsured since last August (employer is small, can't afford insurance). I will not be insured until after my fiance and I are married on November 23 and I will then be eligible for coverage under his work policy that just started. If something major happens to me before that, I'm up shit creek. Millions of others depend on a spouse or significant other for coverage. Why should that even be remotely the case? That's bullshit, plain and simple.

[sandnsea]

5. You're getting married??

why have I not heard of this!!! spill!!

[liberalhistorian]

6. I sure am, ma'am! I posted a thread in the Lounge a couple

weeks ago:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=6877383


And it's to a fellow DUer, too, we met at a DU meetup in Rapid City not two months after I moved to SD from OH. Life sure works strangely, sometimes, doesn't it?

[sandnsea]

14. Well that's terrific!!

Nobody deserves it more than you! :hug: Best wishes and all that jazz.

[aquart]

10. Excellent point.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

16. Thank you!!!

Your health coverage should not depend on your job or your relationship. Imagine how it would be if millions of people were suddenly free to walk away from shitty jobs and/or marriages.

And congrats on your upcoming nuptials. :toast:

[whistle]

19. I had a small business for 15 years with 12 full time employees before I semi retired

...I could not afford group health insurance either, but I took it out anyway and made sure my employees and myself had adequate coverage. It paid off in the end as those employees stayed with me throughout the balance of my operating the business. Also, when my wife of 30 years because terminally ill in 1992-93 there was insurance coverage that prevented a potential financial catastrophe although it still ended up costing about $20,000.00 out of pocket in medical. Without insurance I would have been wiped out financially in addition to having to deal with the grief of losing my wife.

Initially I had a PPO health plan which I preferred, but it became cost prohibitive. So I met with my employees and with our agent provider, explained the situation, laid out the alternatives and let the employees decide based on the trade offs. Although we ended up with one of the HMO alternatives to reduce costs, it was both the decision and choice of my employees. It was not the cheapest option, but it provided adequate coverage and maintained almost all of the same doctors we had under the PPO program. After that the negotiations for health care plans always involved my employees.

In 2003 I turned over the operation of my business to my daughter and youngest son, took a cut in salary but stayed on as a full-time employee with health care benefits. As long as I remain healthy I'll continue to work in whatever capacity I am of use. Last spring I qualified for Medicare but have continued to use my daughter's company's health care for supplemental drug coverage and secondary payer benefits as I do have medical issues. Where there is a will there is always a way. I would love to have had a big fat retirement plan and condo on the ocean to retire to plus a 2nd home in the mountains and financial security into my twilight years. I am happy with what I have today surrounded by my family, my grand children, my dog and my friends.

[greymattermom]

7. got it

We live in the states but are thinking of heading north. Two of my children are duals and one lives in Canada already. One, who is a DU lounge lizard, is a free lance illustrator and may be heading north when her Cobra runs out.

[Seedersandleechers]

8. Wanted: A husband

I'm a nurse, good looking (so I'm told). And, I can keep a job. I just have a habit of leaving wonderful men for some reason...

[LiberalFighter]

13. Leaves me out... I don't particularly care for cats. I have small dogs.

[yardwork]

11. This woman is going to die - this is not funny, it's heartbreaking.

She's a single mother of two "almost grown sons" - that means teenagers. She's facing death sooner or later. Her breast cancer has metastasized into her bones and skin (melanoma). She's going to die of cancer sooner or later. The treatments are keeping her alive, and they're eating up all her money.

Her sons are going to be orphans and she's going to be destitute by the time she dies.

[LiberalFighter]

15. I read Funky Winkerbean and believe that Lisa will be dying 10/1 or soon after

Even though I know it isn't real it breaks me a little.

[yardwork]

18. I feel very sad about that, too.

I've been reading Funky Winkerbean since I was in high school. And that was a long time ago.

[Rosemary2205]

17. Sigh.

A man in my church, early 30's, 4 children between 3months and 10 years old, high six figure salary, really great insurance - so he thought - found out he had late stage non hodgkins lymphoma. He was told it was not curable and if they could keep him alive for 2 years it would cost him close to half a million out of pocket - even with his insurance.

He opted to immediately sell the fancy house and buy a more modest one his wife would be able to pay for and maintain by herself. He opted to take only comfort care rather than fight it. He died in 6 months and did so peacefully knowing he left his family with some sort of nest egg to survive on without him - and that his kids, if they remembered him, would remember the better part of him not the sickly part of him. Most people aquainted with him only casually didn't understand why a big strong man like that would just lay down and die instead of fighting for every day of life with his kids that he could get.

Terminal illness and modern medicine leave us between a rock and a hard place. Medicine can do so much and enables us to squeeze even more days out of our short lifespans. But in my own personal life, and with other people I know, I sometimes wonder if what we put ourselves through, medically and emotionally and financially is really the right thing.