Cancer group to hold 3 vigils for health care overhaul
URBANA – In the decade since she's had breast cancer, Mindy Mangialardi has seen a lot of people struggling with both cancer and health insurance problems.
People who can't get coverage because of their cancer diagnosis. People who hit their annual, sometimes their lifetime, coverage caps and go broke trying to pay for the treatments themselves.
"This isn't unusual," Mangialardi says. "There are all kinds of people who are delaying their treatment so they can come up with the money and people who are going in debt because of what it's costing them."
What she and others plan to ask for at a candlelight vigil early this evening at the Champaign County Courthouse is an American health care system that covers everybody.
"We're calling for meaningful health care reform, and by meaningful, we mean that it will be available, that everyone will be able to have health insurance and that insurance will be adequate to really cover the full range of health care services, including prevention and clinical trials," says Mangialardi, an American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network volunteer. "We're also calling for it to be affordable so that everyone can afford the premium and that the premium cost shouldn't be based on your health care status."
The Cancer Action Network, a not-for-profit advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, will hold three health care reform vigils today in Chicago, Springfield and Urbana.
The Cancer Action Network hopes to send Congress a strong message that the health care reform debate needs to be refocused on the patients, and legislation needs to be passed this year to improve the health care system for people touched by cancer and other serious diseases.
Mangialardi, of Normal, will be one of the speakers at the Urbana vigil. She had breast cancer in 2000, she says, and her insurance experience was better than many others, "although I had my bumps in the road as well."
One of those bumps: Her HMO routed her to about eight different doctors, and she wound up driving between Springfield, Urbana and Bloomington-Normal for various parts of her care.
"I really had to jump through a lot of hoops, but I had insurance, and in terms of coverage, my insurance covered all my treatments, and unfortunately not everybody can say that."
The vigil will start at 5:45 p.m. today in front of the Champaign County Courthouse, 101 E. Main St. It is open to everyone. There will be stories shared from cancer patients and a chance to sign a mobile petition to support access to quality health care.
Also on this date
- Urbana council OKs higher fines for parking offenders
- Investigators seek help from public in solving murder
- Woman denies having anything to do with murders
- Restaurant will be closed till inspection after fire
- Governor's deputy chief of staff quits amid investigation
- Rantoul children will receive H1N1 vaccines today
- CRIS Senior Services begins implementing changes
- Fallen major's body to return home Tuesday
- Bar checks bring 32 tickets in Champaign
- Obituaries