Cancer Care, With a Dose of Insurance Bureaucracy
From The New York Times July 9, 2008 About New York Cancer Care, With a Dose of Insurance Bureaucracy
By JIM DWYER
Over the Memorial Day weekend, a 9-year-old Bronx girl named Lauren went grocery shopping with her mom. In an aisle, a man banged into Lauren’s left arm with his cart, tearing away part of a big mole. She bled heavily.
After a trip to the emergency room at Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center, a dermatologist sent the remainder of the mole for biopsy. On June 10, Lauren returned to the hospital with her mother. She had melanoma, a skin cancer rare in children, and very serious at any age.
At the suggestion of the doctor, her mother took Lauren to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Surgery would be performed to remove the tissue around the mole. On further examination, a specialist also recommended scans on her lungs and liver, and the removal of lymph nodes from her arm, Lauren’s mother said.
Nearly a month later, every syllable of the diagnosis is still electric.
“She doesn’t have a cold that is just going to get better,” said her mother, Amanda.
Even so, no treatment has started. Two dates for surgery have been scheduled, then postponed; on Tuesday, she had a third date, for Friday. None of the delays have anything to do with the urgency of her condition, which is beyond dispute.
So far, Lauren’s care has been stalled by the gnarled bureaucracy that guards the treasure of health care and — possibly — by the charged question of what services the American public should provide to noncitizens, according to her family and the office of United States Senator Charles E. Schumer.