Man With Breast Cancer Denied Medicaid Coverage Because He's Not Female
LatestA breast cancer patient applied for coverage under a federal program to treat the disease, but was rejected. The reason: he’s a man.
According to the Post & Courier, Raymond Johnson was diagnosed in July, and applied for coverage under the federal Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which administers the coverage, rejected him because patients have to be diagnosed via specific early detection programs — and those programs are only open to women. Johnson is angry, saying, “Cancer doesn’t discriminate, so this program shouldn’t discriminate.” And the South Carolina Dept. of Health and Human Services is behind him, asking the CMS to reverse its decision. Meanwhile, Johnson, who is uninsured, has to rely on a patchwork of nonprofit aid and on help from healthcare providers in order to get his chemo.