Man denied breast cancer care

[marmar]

from msn:


Although it’s a well-established medical fact that men get breast cancer, Medicaid, the health insurance program for low income and disabled Americans, won’t provide coverage for some of them. Last month, Raymond Johnson, a 26-year-old single South Carolina man, discovered he was one of the estimated 2,100 men who are diagnosed with the disease each year.

“I didn’t even know men could get breast cancer,” says Johnson, who was diagnosed after he went to a local emergency room for chest pain treatment. “I’m young. I didn’t think anything bad could really happen to me.”

Johnson, a tradesman who made $9 an hour, worked for a small outfit that did not provide health coverage. With a bad economy, he only worked about 30 hours a week, and couldn’t afford private health insurance.

Since he didn’t qualify for traditional Medicaid, he was urged by the hospital where he is receiving care to apply for help under The Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44065422/ns/today-today_health/t/breast-cancer-patient-denied-coverage-hes-man/?gt1=43001#.TkFpamFvC7s

[FLAprogressive]

1. That's discriminatory and he should sue.

[Xithras]

2. It's federal law and the ERA never passed.

I don't know that the courts could resolve this. If Congress passed a law to benefit women, does a man have standing to challenge that law and get it overturned as discriminatory because it excludes his own sex?

A better solution would be to get a new law proposed in Congress to update the previous one, opening the aid to both genders.

Men account for about 1% of all breast cancer patients, but tend to have a lower survival rate because it's often not recognized as quickly, and there is very little breast tissue to remove.

[FLAprogressive]

3. There's the equal protection clause.....

[lumberjack_jeff]

4. Is the ERA justified for this reason?

Should laws passed to benefit women (WIC, for instance) be either invalidated or made gender-neutral?

New laws proposed in congress to benefit men don't have any better prognosis than Mr Johnson.

[alynaB]

5. Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas. Breast cancer is a disease of humans and other mammals; while the overwhelming majority of cases in humans are women, men can also contract breast cancer.