In addition to health insurance, you may have private disability insurance. In some states, depending on where you live and work, you may be eligible to receive state disability insurance payments. State disability insurance only covers a limited period, but every bit of insurance income can help cover your costs.
If you are a Mesothelioma patient with the disease caused from being a Ground Zero 911 first responder, the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act passed the congress on Christmas Eve 2010. This act has set aside several billion dollars designated to assist in the medical expenses of 911 first responders.
Sometimes, when you have a life insurance policy and you need cash for paying medical expenses or other living expenses, and you’ve had a loss of income because of your Mesothelioma condition, it is possible to sell your policy.
You are advised to see the help and opinion of a qualified Mesothelioma attorney if you believe your condition is work-related, or if you have questions about your employer paying for sick leave.
You must come to know what kind of health insurance you have to find the answer to this question. For example, some HMO health plans do cover everything so you would have little or nothing to contribute in payment. The exception would be any co-payment that is required.
A common form of health insurance is based on a percentage split between you and the insurance company. Typically the insurance company agrees to pay 80% while you pay 20% up to a specified amount, and then the insurance company sometimes pays 100% of the health care costs. But also note the dollar limit the insurance company has agreed to pay on the lifetime of your policy.
Some people have Medicare which usually uses the 80% to 20% payment rule. These people can also obtain a supplemental policy that can help cover additional costs.
A very important part of your health insurance policy is how it covers medication costs. Find that paragraph in your plan and know its limits.
When insurance covers Mesothelioma cancer, look for specifics . Does the policy cover durable medical equipment such as wheelchairs and portable oxygen tanks used in your home?
Also, consider a Clinical Trial and being part of a research project about your disease. If you qualify, you will be doing a great service for future generations looking to a cure of Mesothelioma, and the Trial sponsor may offer to pay for or simply provide an important portion of your medical care instead of the insurance company.
There is a lot to consider and when you have Mesothelioma so the last things you want to worry about are the details of insurance coverage. This is why your insurance carrier has representatives to speak with about these concerns. Call the representative and ask your questions. Have them call out by paragraph number from your policy their answers, and take note of these citations. When you’re not sure you understand their explanation, ask them “Try again, please! What does that mean in other words”? Make them be clear for your understanding. If your policy is connected with your job, there may also be someone at work that can explain your coverage benefits.
Having the insurance coverage is important, so do what you can to have the policy not lapse or expire. Your employer is also required to help get use of your COBRA eligibility when you cannot work anymore and are not returning to the job. The COBRA program allows you to keep your insurance for awhile but its duration is situation specific, so you’ll need to ask. COBRA is not free, you will have to pay for it, but it is an option that helps y0u stay covered by insurance while you find a replacement plan.
Mesothelioma Treatments begin with better therapy research and an area that has received increased scientific attention is targeting biological pathways that appear to be specific to cancer. The Mesothelioma Research Foundation of America is particularly interested in the biological pathways that are specific to malignant Mesothelioma cancer.
Our lead researcher, Dr. Parkash Gill, M.D., Ph.D. at USC Norris has spent years growing our understanding of both the genetics and the cellular biology of cancer. This allows us to try different targeted approaches where we use a therapeutic drug that interferes with a part of the pathway.
In order to test these various approaches, cell line models are frequently deployed. The cancer cell lines are derived from human patients and grown in the USC Norris laboratories. However, when these cancer cell lines are grown outside of a patient’s infected body, they sometimes acquire other characteristics that change the test results observed when applying drugs being investigated. Our objective is to obtain reliable results.
Therefore, it becomes very important to couple our discovery of new targets very closely with carefully executed clinical trials under FDA monitoring to ensure predictive, reliable cancer cure therapies.
Since 2008, Dr. Parkash Gill and his research team of Ph.D.s have developed an antibody that finds a glucose-regulated protein on the cancer tumor cell surface and inactivates it. Treatment with this antibody has shown marked inhibition of tumor growth with no toxicity to vital organs.
Dr. Gill has also been involved for many years in the study of another protein found on the tumor surface of many cancer types. He says the protein is critical to the formation of new blood vessels that feed the cancer tumor. “It doesn’t matter what makes the tumor-blood-vessels grow, we can stop it,” says Gill. “The nice thing is that all the other blood vessels in the body are fully established [as opposed to weaker, newly formed tumor-blood-vessels], so that his antibody will not effect them.”
Gill and his team have had positive results with the antibody in recent tests, and are preparing for clinical trials to begin this year, 2011. So, the next step in therapy research for a cure to malignant Mesothelioma cancer is clinical trials on patients.
Clinical trials progress in waves of three phases monitored by the FDA, and is a critical part of drug therapy development. Trials are the critical next step in validating the research findings made in the laboratory leading to the ultimate truth about the drug therapy. Discovering this truth is not possible without the cooperation of volunteer patients infected with malignant Mesothelioma, who are willing to participate in clinical trials for the good will to future generations of cancer patients. Many volunteers discover an inner peace that makes it all worth it because they are willing to submit to a clinical trial that may someday provide a cancer cure for another person with cancer, and that someone could very well be their child!
While some of your family members may be concerned, even scared, for you by the idea of participating in a mesothelioma clinical trial, most cancer patients can not find a negative issue associated with giving it a try. The mesothelioma cancer patient is generally doing everything they can to get cured of the disease, looking for all the most current methods of treatment, and clinical trials provides increased monitoring as a bonus to the treatment at no cost.
So, the immediate benefit to a mesothelioma patient who participates in a clinical trial is that the oncologist researcher ensures by writing the trial protocol, the trial will provide the most modern and current standards-of-care. Even when the researchers may not know if the treatment itself is going to work, they can assure patients are receiving top-notch standard-of-care treatment and monitoring beyond what they would normally encounter.
Finally, in addition to labor time, researcher determination, and cancer patient participation, clinical trials cost a lot of money. It is estimated that $100 million to $1 billion is spent in getting a single drug from discovery to the public. It can be very frustrating for the researcher, in our case Dr. Gill, and very hard to get funding once the study has passed the discovery phase. Many good ideas emerge, but then the drug companies play it “safe” and will not invest in something unless it’s well proven. This is a huge gap!
The Mesothelioma Research Foundation of America serves to help donors bridge this gap. Our purpose is connect mesothelioma cancer patients with clinical trials, and their family members and friends who wish to demonstrate their support by donating money needed to fund the clinical trials. One hundred percent of every dollar received through the Mesothelioma Research Foundation of America is channeled directly into projects like Dr. Gill’s. We believe there is great promise and hope in Veglin and our Foundation has funded 100% of Dr. Gill’s research on Veglin through the FDA approved Phase I and Phase II clinical trials.. Dr. Gill says, “Clinical trials are a very methodical way to tell what a drug really works, and then to also determine that it’s better than what’s out there — without which, we don’t make any progress.”
We are now ready to launch into the final and critical Phase III trials, but this will require your financial support to help us fund the research that will lead to the quickest cure for mesothelioma. We believe that Mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs caused by asbestos exposure, can be cured with Veglin.
So, please help us bring a cure from this dreadful disease to patients. Give generously, you and your friends, to the Mesothelioma Research Foundation of America.
The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act passes the congress on Christmas Eve 2010.
Before Congress could leave for Christmas break this week, the Senate barely managed to pass a bill giving health benefits to the first responders that worked in the ruins left by the 911 attack, better known as Ground Zero.
While the results of this bill is only half the value Democrats has originally designed it to be, it was passed only because of the mass attention drawn to it in the last week by comedian Jon Stewart. This bill has been lingering for years in various committees and for all practical purposes appeared dead last week.
The Mesothelioma Research Foundation of America along with the Canadian Medical Association, the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS), and several other anti-asbestos campaigners are calling on the Quebec Government not to provide loan guarantees to a consortium who intend to restore Canada’s dying asbestos export industry.
Exposure to asbestos has proven since the 1960’s and 70’s to be the leading cause of a specific lung cancer called Mesothelioma. Diagnosis of having this deadly disease is almost always a painful, death sentence. For example, as the effects of asbestos on workers from the United Kingdom who were exposed in the 60’s and 70’s continue to manifest, records show deaths from mesothelioma have increased from 895 in 1990 to 2,249 in 2008. There is no indication of this declining, and this trend is beginning to be recognized in other high-income nations who used asbestos products including the United States.
Let our voice be heard and we ask you to join us in the call for Social Responsibility by all nations in supporting a ban on asbestos and its export. (Click the LIKE and SHARE buttons on our web site, and let FaceBook tell-your-friends).
A mesothelioma treat center is the best facility to find your care, but when that is not an option go to the medical center with the most mesothelioma experience located nearest your residence.
Your medical team will include at least one Oncologist, possibly a chemo-therapist, a radiologist, a dietitian, and an a multitude of nurses and therapists as your need demands their help.
Ask your lead doctor and others on the medical team to convince your insurance carrier of the importance that you get help at a mesothelioma treatment center.
It does not matter what you are seeing a doctor about, it could be your Mesothelioma or maybe something else, there are some things you can do to obtain the most information and benefit from your visit.
When you go to visit a doctor, always have your part of the medical information ready. This would include a list of all medications you take, a history list of your medical problems, and identify the surgeries you may have had. Always bring your copies of your health records including lab tests, x-ray films or scans if you have them; bring it all. Sometimes, your visit to the doctor could become a meeting with many doctors, so with your help and records they can have more to know.
Tell your doctor if you know you have been exposed to Asbestos!
Before your appointment, prepare a list of questions for the doctor. As these occur to you, write them down. Do not be fearful of asking the Doctor these questions. Bring a family member or close friend to the meeting with you if it will help you feel more at ease when asking questions. Having another pair of ears to hear the Doctor’s reply to each question can also help you remember what was said.
When you are not certain about explanations, ask for more information or where you can get additional details. Many times there are brochures provided freely with detailed simple explanations to help with understanding. Some medical facilities also have educators that can help you.
Mesothelioma is a cancer disease and cancer is treated by an Oncologist.
Dr. Parkash S. Gill is an Oncologist, and a professor of Medicine and Pathology who leads the research team at the Mesothelioma Research Foundation of America.
Do not be afraid to ask your doctor for a recommendation to get a second opinion, particularly when you have a good relationship with them. Sometimes an internist or family doctor knows a practitioner who sees patients with Mesothelioma when there is Mesothelioma Care Center near by.
When your doctor cannot assist you in finding a second opinion, you can find one when you ask Dr. Gill the oncologist here at the Mesothelioma Research Foundation of America. Dr. Gill will help you find the closest doctors who are experts in this field. Another option is to check local medical schools to discover if they treat Mesothelioma. You can use our web page to find additional references and links to government cancer websites.
Finally, you are welcome to post comments, ask questions and share your insights here which allows other individuals to respond and share information.
The Next Attack on Neighbors who were near the World Trade Center on 9/11
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All the first responders to the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11 as well as the entire population of lower Manhattan and surrounding boroughs who inhaled the dust created by the collapse of those two buildings are at high risk of attack by getting an insidious disease!
Ground Zero: the Twin Towers burn after the attack of 9/11/2001 before the Statue of Liberty
What disease is most associated with extreme exposure to and inhalation of asbestos dust? Mesothelioma Cancer!
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The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 caused much devastation and loss of life. Only now is it being revealed that there is a pending second attack to come upon many people with a long-term, painful consequence and continuous devastation.
Mesothelioma is an insidious lung cancer which is frequently found in people who have been exposed to asbestos particle dust. The risk of getting mesothelioma has significantly increased for the many people who were first responders to the World Trade Center attack of 9/11, as well as the immediate human population occupying lower Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs because they inhaled the asbestos dust particles created by the collapse of those great, two buildings.
Asbestos is an organic fibrous mineral that has been commonly used for years in construction projects for its fireproofing qualities and as thermal insulation as well as other applications. The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were built in 1966 through 1971 when asbestos usage and sales where at their highest. There is now a growing body of evidence with estimates that the World Trade Center construction project called for the use of 5,000 tons of asbestos fireproofing-materials. Fortunately, the contractors for building the Twin Towers project discontinued use of asbestos-containing insulation when they came to know about the hazards and health risks of asbestos. The understanding about asbestos and how it causes mesothelioma was just beginning. As this realization occurred, the contractors had completed only 64 of the 110-stories in the two towers. While a portion of the asbestos material scheduled to be put into the buildings was stopped, current estimates are that 2,000 tons of asbestos remained within the buildings that became a giant particle dust cloud covering the neighborhood at the time of the 9/11 attack.
When destroyed or disturbed, asbestos becomes a problem in that its fibers become airborne where they are easily inhaled or ingested. The microscopic asbestos fibers are sharp and needle-like which penetrate the body’s soft tissues. The pleural cavity with the lungs is especially vulnerable with its special membrane called the mesothelium. The mesothelium protects the lungs, heart and abdominal area. But the carcinogenic characteristic of asbestos frequently leads to malignant mesothelioma and other diseases.
All eye witness accounts seen on television and by everyone who was near the World Trade Center when the towers collapsed knows, there were giant, thick clouds of pollution and debris covering the lower end of Manhattan. The location where the two towers stood is now called Ground Zero and was covered by particle dust and debris. There are estimates set at 600,000 as the number of people exposed to the cloud of asbestos contaminants. In addition to the asbestos contaminants, there was heavy metal in the dust like mercury, zinc, lead and barium. These dust particles remained in the air and on surfaces for weeks after this tragic event for everyone to inhale and be exposed to. It was discovered that a shirt worn by a response worker at Ground Zero had 93,000 times more asbestos stuck in it than found in the average air concentration of major cities.
The people who escaped the collapsing buildings and the first responders who rushed toward the fallen buildings in a valiant attempt to help others have received a high level of exposure to asbestos. Some of the first responders who were summoned to the scene were equipped with respirators and protective clothing, such as the many firefighters.
This fireman sucks in a lot of dangerous dust in his effort to lead more help.
However, the majority of people near this event did not have any protection from asbestos inhalation. This includes onlookers, police, health-care providers, volunteers, employees for the many companies who occupied the World Trade Center and of course all the people in businesses near the attack site who attempted to escape the catastrophe. Imagine running and breathing in that contaminated dust with every effort made to escape with your life!
Repeated exposure or high levels of exposure to asbestos has been proven to be directly associated with mesothelioma cancer. Mesothelioma has a delayed latency period before it reveals itself and therefore afflicted people do not exhibit mesothelioma symptoms for years, sometimes decades after their exposure to asbestos. This is very troublesome for everyone near the Twin Towers at the time of the attack that got exposed to the dust cloud.
People can live with mesothelioma cancer and have no clue until a diagnosis is eventually made which could be 40 or more years after inhaling the asbestos fibers. There is no way at this time to know exactly how many of the responders, rescue personnel and bystanders contracted mesothelioma because the World Trade Center attacks of 9/11 is so recent.
Many first responders and people living in the neighborhood of Ground Zero will eventually have Mesothelioma like this image.
Many of the symptoms for mesothelioma are difficult to distinguish from other, more common lung ailments. These include difficult breathing, wheezing or coughing, and chest pain only to mention a few key symptoms. Therefore, the estimated number of 9/11 victims suffering with mesothelioma can only be speculative at this time. There are recent statistics concerning the health problems of those who were near or at Ground Zero during the terrorist attacks.
For example, in 2008 the New York State Department of Health estimated that 200 people died from exposure to the pollutants at Ground Zero. At least 55 of those cases were victims of lung cancer. As many as 62 percent of the people exposed to the contaminant filled dust cloud have reported experiencing respiratory problems created from the 9/11 attacks.
People diagnosed with mesothelioma have a few options for treatment, including surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and palliative care. The sooner mesothelioma is diagnosed, better are the chances for treatment to effectively stop the disease. If you or someone you know was at the Twin Towers scene during the attacks or within weeks thereafter, please encourage them to become mesothelioma aware and have a doctor immediately screen them for this insidious, deadly cancer.
You will find much more information regarding mesothelioma, the history of asbestos, and a list of existing therapies as well as new clinical trials for new treatments at our central web site: Mesothelioma Research Foundation of America – www.mesorfa.org
Dr. Parkash S. Gill, MD, Oncologist
Our clinical oncologist and lead research director will freely answer your questions, too.
Ask Dr. Gill about mesothelioma and his upcoming Phase III clinical trial of Veglin, a non-chemotherapy treatment. Just click on his Ask Dr. Gill link to send your question, now!
