An American man with breast cancer has been denied government funded insurance coverage because he is not a woman. Raymond Johnson, a 26-year-old construction worker from Charleston, South Carolina, says he cannot afford private health insurance; he earns $9 an hour, and his medical bills are likely to run to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Initially featuring as a local ABC News 4 news story last week, Johnson's plight has captured the nation's attention, reaching national headlines on television, in newspapers and blogs on all the main media channels, including ABC, FOX, CNN and CBS.
Johnson noticed he had a lump in his breast but thought it must be a cyst so he ignored it. But the pain got so bad over July 4 weekend that he went to a Charleston emergency room, ABC News reported.
At first doctors thought the pain was to do with his heart, but when he showed them the lump, they sent him for a biopsy and that was when he found out he had breast cancer.
Now, not only does he have to face a battle with breast cancer, it seems he has to face a battle to get federal funding to pay his medical bills.
As a non-disabled single man with no children, Johnson doesn't qualify for the means-tested federal and state funded Medicaid administered through South Carolina, but ABC reported that he was advised to apply for a program for people diagnosed with breast cancer who are on low incomes.
That program was set up under the Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act of 2000, and gives states the option to provide medical cover through Medicaid, but it only covers women, because of the way it is worded.
In the meantime, he has undergone surgery at the Charleston Cancer Center, where doctors removed a tumor the size of a baseball. There he met Susan Appelbaum, a cancer patient advocate who on hearing of his plight has been lobbying community leaders and lawmakers to try and get the law changed.
UPI reports that Johnson has been undergoing treatment at the not-for-profit Roper Saint Francis Hospital, where his bill already exceeds $4,000.
Appelbaum estimates that with chemo and radiotherapy, Johnson's medical costs will run to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"This boy is never going to recover financially," she said.
Johnson is not the first man in South Carolina to come across legal wording that denies men access to medical help available only to women with breast cancer.
In April 2010, news broke about Scott Cunningham, a 45-year old man from Marion, North Carolina, who became uninsured and unemployed after losing his job at a furniture factory. He sought screening for breast cancer at a clinic that offered free mammograms, but was refused because he was not a woman.
Cunningham, whose father and mother both had breast cancer in the 1990s, was turned away by the Rutherford-Polk-McDowell Health District's National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, administered under the same law as that which excludes Johnson.
According to the National Cancer Institute, compared to women, breast cancer in men is rare: fewer than 1% of all cases are in men. In the US, about 2,000 cases of male breast cancer are diagnosed every year.
Johnson, whose phone has not stopped ringing since ABC reported his story, says he is stunned by the media reaction, and feels "really blessed and hopeful".
He is optimistic that he will find financial assistance, but also hopes the law will be changed, so that men who get breast cancer have the same entitlement as women.
Written by Catharine Paddock PhD
Initially featuring as a local ABC News 4 news story last week, Johnson's plight has captured the nation's attention, reaching national headlines on television, in newspapers and blogs on all the main media channels, including ABC, FOX, CNN and CBS.
Johnson noticed he had a lump in his breast but thought it must be a cyst so he ignored it. But the pain got so bad over July 4 weekend that he went to a Charleston emergency room, ABC News reported.
At first doctors thought the pain was to do with his heart, but when he showed them the lump, they sent him for a biopsy and that was when he found out he had breast cancer.
Now, not only does he have to face a battle with breast cancer, it seems he has to face a battle to get federal funding to pay his medical bills.
As a non-disabled single man with no children, Johnson doesn't qualify for the means-tested federal and state funded Medicaid administered through South Carolina, but ABC reported that he was advised to apply for a program for people diagnosed with breast cancer who are on low incomes.
That program was set up under the Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act of 2000, and gives states the option to provide medical cover through Medicaid, but it only covers women, because of the way it is worded.
In the meantime, he has undergone surgery at the Charleston Cancer Center, where doctors removed a tumor the size of a baseball. There he met Susan Appelbaum, a cancer patient advocate who on hearing of his plight has been lobbying community leaders and lawmakers to try and get the law changed.
UPI reports that Johnson has been undergoing treatment at the not-for-profit Roper Saint Francis Hospital, where his bill already exceeds $4,000.
Appelbaum estimates that with chemo and radiotherapy, Johnson's medical costs will run to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"This boy is never going to recover financially," she said.
Johnson is not the first man in South Carolina to come across legal wording that denies men access to medical help available only to women with breast cancer.
In April 2010, news broke about Scott Cunningham, a 45-year old man from Marion, North Carolina, who became uninsured and unemployed after losing his job at a furniture factory. He sought screening for breast cancer at a clinic that offered free mammograms, but was refused because he was not a woman.
Cunningham, whose father and mother both had breast cancer in the 1990s, was turned away by the Rutherford-Polk-McDowell Health District's National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, administered under the same law as that which excludes Johnson.
According to the National Cancer Institute, compared to women, breast cancer in men is rare: fewer than 1% of all cases are in men. In the US, about 2,000 cases of male breast cancer are diagnosed every year.
Johnson, whose phone has not stopped ringing since ABC reported his story, says he is stunned by the media reaction, and feels "really blessed and hopeful".
He is optimistic that he will find financial assistance, but also hopes the law will be changed, so that men who get breast cancer have the same entitlement as women.
Written by Catharine Paddock PhD
