Roseanne Nabhan: Cancer diagnosis should not equal lifetime of debt
 Roseanne Nabhan, of Portage, Indiana was always very careful about her health.
“I believe our bodies are a gift…I always was very healthy and never had any health problems. I exercised, meditated, wasn’t overweight. Then over a six-month period, I started having trouble with my immune system. But when doctors diagnosed me with a 10-centimeter sarcoma in June of 2007, I was scared out of my wits. I thought to myself, ‘How can this be real? Are you kidding me?’”
After she learned she had cancer, Roseanne dealt with it in a philosophical way, “What we resist persists. I had to do everything I could to accept my body and what was happening to me.”
Unfortunately, for Roseanne, her cancer diagnosis wasn’t her only problem.
“My employer offered insurance, but the monthly price of the plan exceeded what I’d usually earned. I also couldn’t afford to be added to my husbands’ insurance plan. I bought an individual insurance plan, just to be safe. But I knew my insurance wasn’t anywhere near what I was going to need.”
After meeting with doctors, Roseanne decided to start radiation treatments. She underwent 28 treatments and eventually had a lumpectomy. The total costs of her cancer treatment were approximately $60,000 toward which her insurance company has contributed about $3,000.
“Everything we worked for—our retirement and our goals—went right out the window. It’s a shame that you can work your whole life and then a cancer diagnosis can bankrupt you. Once I got out of shock, I started dealing with these financial issues. I was going to use all of my tools and all of my strategies to get back to balance. I read the book Your Money or Your Life and began to devise strategies to pay my medical expenses. We re-financed our house and have taken side jobs.”
Her creditors worked with her. The hospital where Roseanne received her radiation treatment wrote off most of the cost of her treatments. Despite this, she still pays $450-$550 each month toward her cancer-related medical bills.
Roseanne is now in remission and feels strongly the health care system should be changed so others don’t have to go through what she did.
“Take a look at your insurance policy, review it, if there’s a tag for cancer policy—pay it—be aware of what’s available. Today I have no cancer and everything is good. I feel incredibly fortunate compared to friends or people I know. But the U.S. needs to change its health care system. There’s no reason that we shouldn’t have adequate health care for everyone. If the wealthy are the only ones who can afford care, then that’s a sad state of affairs."
Take a moment to watch an interview with Roseanne Nabhan below:
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