A friend of mine has a sister who is let’s say a free spirit. I would guess she is in her late 40’s (not really sure) but she is currently unemployed and has no health insurance. Sometime last year she noticed a lump she went to a doctor who said that he thought it was nothing but dense breast. She kept it in the back of her mind for a while then she noticed it again or at least that is what she is saying. She started noticing it a few months ago when she thought maybe she should try to get it checked again. She went to a doctor (not sure if it is the same one who she saw last year) this time the doctor said she needed to have a mammogram as soon as possible. When she asked how quick he says “well if you were my wife I would have it done this week”. Well that is never a good sign.
My friend mentioned it to me because she was asking about signs of cancer etc. and she mentioned that she had no insurance and no job so she was going to have to save up for the mammogram. No one should ever have to “save up” to have a potentially life threatening disease detected. Why is the U.S. spending about $7.3 billion dollars per month on average in 2009 on the war in Iraq alone. The average cost of a mammogram is $120.00 so if the United States just had 1 less month out of the war it would have paid for 60,833,333 mammograms. Does anyone else find this just astonishing?
If someone needed chemotherapy the average cost billed to insurance for one round is $16,000.00. So one month of not having a war would pay for 456,250 rounds of chemo. If an average chemo treatment is 8 rounds, one month of the war would pay for 57,031 people’s chemotherapy. I have a t shirt that says Cure Cancer Now Liberate Iraq later. Now that I look at the numbers the shirt may have had a great idea, I mean these numbers are just based on one month of the war and how long has the war in Iraq been going on?
Just a thought.