END Skin Cancer Now. CALL your Congressman/Senator!
Skin cancer rates, and deaths, rising fast for seniors and others. This may have to do with the lack of clearly defined health care coverage for annual skin cancer screenings everyone by both private insurers and by Medicare/Medicaid.
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May 17th, 2019
re: skin cancer rates doubling! Time to REQUIRE Medicare, Medicaid and all medical insurances to categorically pay for comprehensive skin cancer screenings.
Dear Congressman Larson and others:
Some of you in DC are asleep at the wheel...of government. Here's why->
Summer is often associated with thoughts about how to prevent skin cancer. Ads for Sun block lotions, warnings to go see doctors. Fine. BUT payments for skin cancer screening by Medicare and other insurers is not guaranteed. Incredible given increasing rates of skin cancers for Americans!
Here is chart from the federal Centers for Disease Control showing actual and predicted incidences of Melanoma (sometimes fatal) skin cancer for both men and women:
(see info for Melanoma and other cancers at this CDC link at: https://www.cdc.gov/
Skin and other cancer rates may be even higher for non-white persons; see more charts at the above link provided by the US Center for Disease Control.
We see that rates of Melanoma - a killer cancer - have almost doubled for white males in the above chart with similarly concerning and growing rates for white women. For more info on rates go to the above link.
It is obvious that since full coverage for reimbursements regular skin cancer screenings by both Medicare and private insurance may not be allowed, then we will continue to see skin and other cancer rates rising - with screening delayed until it is too late to save people whose Medicare/Medicaid and other coverages and care are lacking or deliberately ambiguous unless, for instance, in some cases, you get a referral from your doctor - hard to imagine anyone doing this who cannot see lesions on his/her back and elsewhere until it is too late. (see:"Your Part B benefits won’t cover a skin cancer screening if you aren’t showing any symptoms of skin cancer. However, if you or your doctor notice an abnormal change in color of a mole or a new skin growth, a cancer screening may be covered by Medicare." -https://www.
"If your doctor refers you to a dermatologist for further testing or analysis regarding a potentially cancerous skin growth, Part B will cover the cost of the referral visit. "BUT what if your own doctor does not refer you? Or if you do not have the funds to pay costs to visit a specialist for a checkup/screening? No wonder the rates of incidence of this often fatal cancer for both men and women are growing. see 'Actual and Projected Cancer Incidence Rates, United States, 1975 to 2020,' by the US Centers for Disease Control, including rates for Melanoma at: https://www.cdc.gov/
TIME for immediate Congressional action for these reasons:
1) Skin Cancer Misdiagnosis - Warning Signs and Symptoms:Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States, and is also commonly misdiagnosed. Skin cancer develops when a mutation in the DNA of ...2) patients are not able to see all parts of their bodies, especially the backs of their bodies, to determine if some lesions or growths may have changed nor do patients have the requisite medical skills and training to make this determination - nor do many family practitioners who may mistakenly decide some lesion is not cancer;
3) to save lives and to better protect Americans from all forms of skin cancers and to reduce pain and suffering from advanced disease which should have been identified and treated before getting to advanced stages and4) to reduce higher patient and government costs of treating advanced cancers.
5) "Melanoma (and other skin cancers) can and should be caught EARLY to prevent deaths, lower treatment costs, and to avoid pain and suffering. " No wonder cancer rates are rising since the insurances we pay for is not guaranteed to cover prevention easily!"Melanoma early detection. Melanoma skin cancer can spread quickly to other organs, and it causes the vast majority of skin cancer deaths in the United States. So it's especially important to detect this type of skin cancer early, when treatment is most likely to be successful." -Melanoma early detection | Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
https://www.seattlecca.org/diseases/melanoma/early- detection-melanoma
6) And skin cancer rates are, sadly, 'epidemic' for America's seniors!
by S Garcovich - 2017 - Cited by 21 - Related articlesOct 1, 2017 - Keywords: skin cancer, elderly cancer patients, geriatrics, basal cell ... NMSC thus has the highest incidence of all cancers, outweighing all ... " The worldwide surge in the incidence of skin cancer during the last two decades has reached “epidemic” proportions, resulting from long, lifetime sun exposure in an increasingly aging population [1]. Skin cancer significantly contributes to the overall burden of cutaneous conditions in the elderly population, determining significant morbidity, mortality and health-related costs. " -from the US National Institutes of Health at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5614327/
Why have members of Congress failed to mandate a common sense requirement that needed and sensible regular skin cancer checkups by specialists be paid for by Medicare and all medical insurances? And when will Congress act to do so? No wonder we are losing the 'War on Cancer' - declared by Congress decades ago, (see the CDC charts).
"The War on Cancer is the effort to find a cure for cancer by increased research to improve the understanding of cancer biology and the development of more effective cancer treatments, such as targeted drug therapies. The aim of such efforts is to eradicate cancer as a major cause of death. The signing of the National Cancer Act of 1971 by United States president Richard Nixonis generally viewed as the beginning of this effort, though it was not described as a "war" in the legislation itself.[1] " - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Cancer
Members of Congress have yet to learn the important lesson that 'An ounce of PREVENTION is worth a pound of cure,' but maybe only for people who do not have CongressCare as you do? Maybe the CDC can inform the rest of us: are cancer rates for members of Congress higher than those of their constituents? If so why? A true case of "No SKIN in the game of dodging cancer because your checkups are guaranteed to be covered?" If so, why is this?
'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.' -a common sense axiom Congress has failed to recognize in too many cases. Do your job: mandate that proper and comprehensive medical screenings for skin and other cancers be FULLY COVERED by ALL insurances now; help PREVENT cancer and save us all a lot of money and pain and suffering by doing so.
Alan DiCara, www.SocialSecurityParty.org
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