Cancer is Really Expensive

By 2040, 40% of women and 30% of men will receive a breast cancer diagnosis.

I received my breast cancer diagnosis Jan 14, 2025 having just returned home after evacuating due to the fires. It was Friday at 5pm, and my MediCal appointed doctor asked me if I had any family at home, when I said no she made a disappointed sound and then in the most uncaring and unprofessional way possible said the words I never dreamt I would hear, “you have cancer in your right breast, a surgeon and oncologist will call you next week.” No other information and no one called me that next week. When they did, no appointments were available for months.

The next three months fighting MediCal to get the care to save my life was more stress than I have ever experienced in my life (and stress and trauma have sadly been constants in my world.)

I truly thought I could beat the MediCal system. With English as my first language, college educated, corporate executive, cis white privilege ideas, I thought I could find a way to make it work. With two other hyper educated people and one insurance expert calling almost full-time 8 hours a day for weeks, MediCal broke me. When I think of the people who just give up, or who go to the shit doctor who gave me the worst advice and just take it as fact because they went to medical school, it breaks my heart.

I decided I had to find a work around and found a way to get onto a PPO that without Covered California would have been $1400/month. I then went to work meeting with as many doctors as I could from City of Hope to UCLA, personal recommendations and more.

The greatest doctor I found, the one who has 30 years of breast cancer experience, the only one who talked to me about my entire lifestyle and prescribed changes that will create an anti-cancer environment for the rest of my life Dr. Kristi Funk, doesn’t take insurance anymore and as painful as that is, I commend her decision. Her billing alone will be around $15,000. At this point, I think we all know how insurance is dictating medical care in the US. But she has written it all down in her books, goes on Good Morning America, and she is one of the greatest breast cancer evangelists we’ve got.

With my treatment plan and surgery finally in sight, it's time to think about how I’ll support myself this year. I will have surgery June 4 to remove my cancer, check my sentinel node to see if it has spread, heal and then start my chemo and radiation journey.

So if you have the means to help a little, Obamastyle, every bit of energy towards this is welcome.

With profound gratitude,

Alexis