Speaking from experience about health insurance
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro has said if he had not been in a car accident with a boar in Spain, he would not have learned he had cancer in time to live.
“That boar may have saved my life,” he tweeted Monday.
A year after his diagnosis, Castro said he will have cancer for the rest of his life but expects to live. His journey has given him a deeper understanding of our broken health care system.
In February, Castro, a 48year-old husband and father of three young children, underwent surgery to remove gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors. The surgeons removed pieces of his colon and small intestine, 44 lymph nodes, his appendix and his gallbladder.
He’s been open about his story and in making the connection to the need for universal health care, breaking the news with Express-news Opinion columnist Cary Clack, then speaking with Express-news Metro columnist Elaine Ayala and MSNBC.
When Castro shares his story, he begins with the car accident in Spain in the summer of 2022 that led to his medical treatment in an emergency room and a shocking diagnosis.
“As soon I arrived they treated me like a full-blown trauma patient. Neck brace, IV, MRI with contrast — all of it,” he said.
His diagnosis came just as he was expecting to get discharged. He never received a bill.
Castro said that before this experience, he had an aversion to blood, needles and doctors’ offices. He had never been hospitalized. But in six weeks, he’d grown used to the blood draws, CT scans, PET scans and MRIS that helped his treatment. He learned words like “neuroendocrine,” once foreign to him, and discovered he’d likely had neuroendocrine tumors for years.
He wondered how much longer his kids would have their dad around.
His oncologist put him on a monthly injection of Lanreotide, a specialty drug meant to slow the growth of tumors that remain on both sides of his liver and in his chest, near his lungs. The list price per injection is $24,000, and his insurance negotiates and pays $6,500 while Castro pays $60 out of pocket.
Castro is fortunate, but in sharing his story, he contrasts it with those Americans who aren’t as fortunate.
“Millions of Americans have no insurance at all . ... They can’t afford the treatment they need to fight off cancer!” he said.
Castro pays $1,350 a month for his family’s insurance, and he’s paid about $8,000 out of pocket for his cancer care.
“And that’s with great insurance. And it’s only year one. I keep thinking — what if this had happened when I didn’t have insurance? Or before the (Affordable Care Act) — with lifetime caps and pre-existing condition exemptions?”
In 2022, there were more than 18 million Americans with a history of invasive cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. And more than 1.9 million new cancer cases and about 609,820 deaths from cancer are expected in the U.S. in 2023. Imagine their journeys, as well as those with other serious illnesses.
Castro’s call for universal health care is personal.
“No one should suffer with cancer, diabetes, MS, schizophrenia or any other mental or physical illness just because they can’t afford care,” he tweeted. “We’re a rich country. To watch our people go bankrupt, suffer or die like this is unconscionable.”
A woman named Jill, recently diagnosed with breast cancer, replied to Castro on Twitter, thanking him for his continued fight and lamenting our country’s expensive health care.
“Though I have great insurance, it’s still expensive and wish we had healthcare like Europe,” she said.
Quality, affordable health care is a human right that shouldn’t only be afforded to the privileged. America should heed Castro’s call for universal health care.