Pamela Fink Says She Was Fired After Getting a Double Mastectomy To Prevent Breast Cancer

[Judi Lynn]

Source: ABC News

Pamela Fink Says She Was Fired After Getting a Double Mastectomy To Prevent Breast Cancer
Fink Says Her Doctors Told Her She Had an 80 Percent Chance of Getting Breast Cancer

By EMILY FRIEDMAN
April 30, 2010

A Connecticut woman claims she was fireddespite years of glowing reports by her employer after she told them she had tested positive for the breast cancer gene and would undergo a double mastecomy as a preventative measure.

"I was a great employee and I did really great work," said Pamela Fink, 39. "The only thing that changed from the time that I had a great review to when I didn't was my two surgeries."

Fink has filed complaints at the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities as well as the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that she was fired from the Stamford, Conn., company MXenergy because of her genetic testing results.

She is claiming that by doing so, her employer, MXenergy, a natural gas and electricity provider, violated the Genetic Information Nondiscriminaton Act as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/OnCallPlusBreastCancerNews/pamela-fink-fired-testing-positive-breast-cancer-gene/story?id=10510163

[Deep13]

1. They probably didn't want her in the insurance pool.

Really despicable way of kicking someone when she's down.

[unblock]

2. yet another reason for taking health insurance out of the employment equation

[Dappleganger]

6. +1000

[yourout]

42. +1001

[dflprincess]

10. Maybe someday when they "fix" the insurance bill

:sarcasm:

The only way situations like this will be remedied is with a single payer system.

[laconicsax]

17. The "fix" will happen.

It may not happen for 40 years, but it'll happen.

[totodeinhere]

18. And how many will die in those forty years waiting for that fix? n/t

[laconicsax]

27. Millions.

It's one of the reason's I was against this insurance give-away bill.

[progressoid]

19. 40 years?

That's optimistic.

[dflprincess]

23. I think it could be less than that

The Health Insurance Profit Protection Act won't keep the crooks in business forever. It will extend the insurance companies lives for a few years but in the end they'll self destruct. Sadly the bill just extend the agony for all of us.

The CBO says that even with this bill there will still be 19 million uninsured by 2014 and that number is bound to grow as premiums and copays continue to rise. I'll be in 10 years we'll be right back where we were without the bill - though it will probably take another 5 years to pass real reform. When that happens there won't be any millions of new victims to hand them like was done this time with the mandate & by then even the fools in Congress might be able to figure out that it will cost less to move to a single payer system than to continue to subsidize premiums paid to the private companies.

Though, for way too many Americans, having to wait any more time at all for access to care is too long.

[laconicsax]

29. The astounding part of it all is that we're supposed to find that acceptable.

I would guess that when a "fix" comes, it'll be more " " than actual fix. There's no reason to suspect that the Dems will spend the next 9 years trying to push actual reform through Congress. If anything, we'll see lots of tiny adjustments to the bill that still leave the main problem unaddressed.

[laconicsax]

26. If I was more realistic, I'd get flamed for being pessimistic.

There's no way to win.

[Greyhound]

25. I'm afraid that's the only part of the "Insurance Industry Profit Protection Act"

that matters. It entrenches the industry itself as the sole source of access to health care.

Sol will be a red dwarf before we can rid ourselves of this parasite.

[aquart]

11. Yes.

This business was forced to deprive itself of a valued employee because of health issues. How can that be good for business?

Get health care off the back of American business. Make America competitive again.

[European Historian]

20. Employment opportunities are so shitty

I'm sure there are plenty of talented people that could take her place. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure she deserves her job, but I think there is more talent out there than jobs available. Thus employers can get rid of people for all kinds of specious reasons and still get along just fine.

[DeSwiss]

14. Enough said.

+1

[tomp]

41. how about taking profit out of the health care equation? nt

[Dappleganger]

5. There's no doubt in my mind that MANY corporations laid-off high-risk employees extensively

over the past two years. Can't go into it here, but let's just say that I have my suspicions that this may be one reason why my husband was laid-off from his last job. He was definitely NOT the only one.

[Dappleganger]

3. If my aunt was still alive she'd be interested in this...

she warned me to not get genetic testing done for breast cancer because of possible FUTURE denial by insurance companies, both for me and our daughters. BTW, I've survived two rounds of BC. My aunt went through three rounds of BC, my mother had one. Thankfully none of them died from it (although another aunt did die from ovarian cancer).

Those regulations may be in place now but you cannot unring that bell so to speak if they are ever repealed.

[Dappleganger]

4. Forgot to add...

my aunt was a nursing instructor at University of Alabama-Birmingham and also worked with a well-known gyno-oncologist. I took her advice seriously because she knew our family's history of cancer so well and had studied the ramifications and treatments extensively.

[Baalath]

7. Could be it was a death knell if you don't get tested

[Dappleganger]

8. In my family...

we KNEW it would probably be there so steps were taken to help this not happen. I don't need a genetic marker to tell me family medical history.

Our girls will have to decide that on their own, but there's a very high risk which comes with test results.

[European Historian]

21. You can always pay cash for the tests to retain anonymity

If you can afford it.

[fasttense]

44. No you can't

If you know something about your future or current health and don't tell your health insurance corporation, even if you paid for it yourself, it is considered insurance FRAUD.

Having a possible deadly genetic trait and withholding that info will get you kicked off quicker and may even involve paying fines and jail time.

The corporations have us all by the throat.

[SocialistLez]

12. My co-worker was talking about the gene thing a few days ago

She has breast cancer and wants her daughter to be tested to see if she's at a higher risk.
She said if they do find the gene, the insurance company won't pay for treatment.

[Baalath]

46. That isn't the way it works.

If she has breast cancer then SHE is tested for genetic markers. They won't even test her daughter unless she is positive.

It wouldn't effect the co-worker's insurance to be positive (which is debatable if it does) because she has breast cancer.

[alarimer]

45. I will never get any sort of genetic testing for precisely this reason.

I know a lot of people are all gaga over the possibilities of testing for this and that but I think it will be used primarily by insurance companies to deny coverage and by employers to get rid of people they see as high risk.

[Enrique]

9. I got fired by MXEnergy

go get them, Pamela! :toast:

[SocialistLez]

13. I'm surprised my employer hasn't fired

my co-worker.

She's been with them about 20 some odd years and is undergoing chemo for breast cancer.

A lot of us believe if she hadn't been with them so long, they would have conjured up some stupid excuse to fire her.

It's possible a former co-worker was fired for her health issues.

The pool for the health insurance for my employer is VERY small so I'm sure they'll be seeing an increase in their premiums due to my co-worker's breast cancer.

[DeSwiss]

15. K&R n/t

[Truth2Tell]

16. Genetic testing of potential employees can't be far off

workplace pre-employment drug testing has always been an intrusion born of pressure from the insurance industry

[SocialistLez]

24. Yep. I see it coming and I'm sure our sold out Supreme Court

won't stop it.

[Odin2005]

22. Ugh. Slimy bastards.

[JoeyT]

28. I wonder if prostate problems get people fired from that company.

I'm guessing probably not.

[activa8tr]

30. Women should not be working because they can get Cancer,

and if men get Cancer, it's much less often.

So we should just fire all women, and give all jobs back to men.

OMG do I really really really need to post that :sarcasm: thing?

I thought you all would know I was kidding.

But maybe you all didn't.

Maybe you think I'm a Republican!

[riverbendviewgal]

31. This doesn't happen in Canada

My son had just started a sales job for a company when two months into the job he had seizures and then was being operated for a brain tumor 3 days later. No hint that my healthy 6 ft handsome son had this. He was in excellent health and almost 25 years old.

It was the same type of terminal brain cancer as Ted Kennedy had. He had 3 operations, chemo, radiation, was in intensive care for 5 weeks and palliative care for a week. and when he died he was still an employee!!!!!!! After 18 months from his first seizure.

His co-workers were at his funeral. The company was always there for him. They said he always had a job to go back to.

Same goes for my husband who was diagnosed with terminal cancer 2 months after our son. His company was really good and then gave him a buy out just before he died so ALL the pension money went to us in a lump sum. He worked at his company for 33 years.

There were no medical costs either for me to pay for either of them. I know their treatments were into the hundreds and hundreds of dollars, if not millions.

There was support from the companies we all worked for, and from the medical staffs that treated them.

We Canadians look at how America treats its citizens and shake our heads. Such cruelty and inhumanity.

All for the Almighty dollar.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

32. ....

thank you river from everyone in this country...


there really is no smiley that captures how your post made me feel. It was very moving, and that makes me get tongue tied.



I wish it could be on the front page of every newspaper here.

[Dappleganger]

33. I am so sorry for your loss.

Cannot imagine losing both a son and a husband but am happy for you that you had good treatment along the way.

Welcome to DU!

:hug:

[tavalon]

36. I'm so sorry for your loss

Words escape me. Yes, Canadians are much kinder than we are.

[Truth2Tell]

43. Welcome to DU riverbendviewgal.

Your post stopped me in my tracks. The kind of post that stops me from reading the rest of the thread. Because really what more can anyone say. Thank you for having the strength to be here with us. Much love.

[beyurslf]

34. I am certain my job would lay off people who had high risk diseases

or were already diagnosed with expensive illnesses. we hear about health and wellness and the high cost of insurance being related to how we live our lives. it is almost non stop. I understand it all but it certainly makes me feel that if I was diagnosed with something, especially if it could be considered lifestyle related, that I would keep it secret as long as possible.

[Citizen Worker]

35. Or was it something else?

Having no idea of how many workers are employed by MXenergy I'm inclined to think that this incident may have more to do with the objectification of women than it does with insurance premiums but I could be wrong.

[laconicsax]

38. I've been wondering the same thing.

The discussion here is focused on insurance and the nature of the suit, but since the negative review happened between the mastectomy and reconstructive surgery, one has to wonder if there's a PBQ issue at hand.

[Lisa0825]

37. I am proud that my employer hired the candidate I recommended WHILE

she was still going through treatment for breast cancer. Then, a few months later when we had a large reduction in force due to a hurricane, they still kept her, even when it would have been easy to cut her with no consequences.

I agree with the comment above that situations like these are a prime example of why health care and employment should not be linked.

[Union Yes]

39. K&R

[Jennicut]

40. MxEnergy, huh? I need to learn more about them. My husband works for CT Light and Power here.

I wonder what dirt he has on these assholes? Many of the smaller energy companies here are non-unionized greedy idiots.

I found this:

MXenergy refunds $2.lM to customers
By By Rob Varnon STAFF WRITER
Publication: Connecticut Post Online (Bridgeport, Connecticut)
Date: Tuesday, June 23 2009


By issuing $2.1 million in refunds and credits, Stamford-based MXenergy Inc., an energy retailer, has settled state allegations it overcharged thousands of customers last year.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal held a news conference Tuesday announcing the settlement in which MXenergy will
pay nearly 3,000 customers $367,097 in refunds on top of the $1.76 million it returned to customers last summer at the insistence of Blumenthal and Consumer Counsel Mary Healey.

Blumenthal launched an investigation of MXenergy last year over its tactics for attracting and charging customers.

In a statement, he likened MXenergy's tactics to a bait-and-switch scam, in which the company "lured customers with lower teaser rates, only to soon stick them with stratospheric prices." http://www.allbusiness.com/energy-utilities/utilities-industry-electric-power/13889600-1.html

Sounds like a great company (yes, that was sarcastic).