Singer and songwriter Jewel sat down with ABC News This Week's George Stephanopoulos to discuss her support of a bill that will allow women to stay in the hospital at least 48 hours after a mastectomy. Called drive-thru mastectomies, the current practice of discharging women hours after surgery does not allow women sufficient time to heal before being released from the hospital. During the interview Jewel placed the blame on insurance companies and HMOs who have decided that a mastectomy is not major surgery but an outpatient procedure. You have got to be kidding me, what an absurdity.
As Jewel stated, "This certainly isn't a merely feminist issue. This is about the care of our loved ones."
I don't see it as much a feminist issue as simply a matter of compassionate, and in this case, safe health care of mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters. The obnoxious practice of bean counters to decide that any major surgery is an outpatient procedure to save on health care expenses has been going on far too long.
Jewel will travel to Washington to help deliver 12 million signatures to Congress to support a health care bill that requires insurance companies and HMOs to cover the cost of proper care for women undergoing mastectomy. The VOICES: Jewel Lobbies for Breast Cancer Bill interview is available as video for viewing online.
1. Well, Jewel's efforts are sure to be appreciated by the women and men that have insurance but what about people like me that have nothing? In spite of that, I had a "drive-thru" mastectomy almost two years ago. Thing is, I didn't feel sick and I believe that hospitals are for sick people. I just "dropped in" for surgery and wanted to get the heck outta there. Having a mastectomy is enough but I didn't want to hang around long enough to pick up hospital germs. That would have lead to more serious complications. Pain? I didn't have enough to warrant the use of anything above a regular Tylenol.
Posted at 3:07PM on Sep 20th 2006 by MaryD