Stage 4, metastatic, advanced cancer.
Not the same as terminal.
It is likely to become terminal, but it is not the same.
You can be one, and not the other (with a probable yet in brackets).
So arbitrary rules that apply to terminal illness do not automatically apply to stage 4 cancer.
Free medical care for all would be a wonderful thing. Free medical care for all cancer patients would be a wonderful thing.
But health economics is a tricky complicated multi-faceted balancing act, and unfortunately at present it is simply not possible to provide free healthcare for all of those people (remembering that 50% of us will get cancer). So then we need to decide which cancers are more cancerous than others. Well, there’s no stage 5, so stage 4 wins, right?
But I still work as much as I can, and I am lucky enough to have income protection payments. I don’t have to have any treatment currently. I am well. And I have stage 4 cancer.
I don’t believe I should automatically get a medical card.
There.
I’ve said it.
But health economics is a tricky complicated multi-faceted balancing act, and unfortunately at present it is simply not possible to provide free healthcare for all of those people (remembering that 50% of us will get cancer). So then we need to decide which cancers are more cancerous than others. Well, there’s no stage 5, so stage 4 wins, right?
But I still work as much as I can, and I am lucky enough to have income protection payments. I don’t have to have any treatment currently. I am well. And I have stage 4 cancer.
I don’t believe I should automatically get a medical card.
There.
I’ve said it.
Another perk that terminal patients get is amnesty from all public confrontation, criticism or approbation.
Unfortunately I realise I have talked myself out of deserving that.
It is one of the things I look forward to, when my time comes.
But I am not entitled to it yet.
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