By Rap Lewis
New projections for the annual cost of cancer care in the United States present a compelling additional argument for the adoption of a single-payer health care system.
Estimates of the cost of cancer care for an aging population in the year 2020 run from at least $158 billion to as high as $207 billion, according to an article in the January 19 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Cancer is a disease of aging, and the population of elderly Americans is expected to rise from 40 million in 2009 to about 70 million by 2030. Therapies are becoming increasingly expensive. So is the insurance required to cover them.
Dominated by giant insurance, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, the nation’s for-profit health care system – even with the 2010 Affordable Care Act – will welcome the higher incidence of cancer, with its terrible toll of human health and life, as a splendid cornucopia of profit, with billions to be wrung from the widespread disease and suffering.
A single-payer system, like those in most advanced countries, would ensure the necessary coverage and care without bankrupting the patient and his or her family.
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