Katie Brickell

Diagnosed with cervical cancer after being refused a pap test three times in the U.K. because she was under the age of 25

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Rick Scott
• healthcare reform

[hauskalainen]

Don't be fooled by this. Katie Brickell wants MORE government healthcare not LESS. She wants the govt to pay for FREE pap tests but at at a younger age, Not NO govt health care at all. Katie campaigns for the opposite of what CPR wants.

[Julie8040]

Thanks Katie for drawing attention to this & raising awareness for young women to make sure they get tested if they have good reason. I think you are so brave. But I think it's sad to see your case being used in this way to try and restrict health care to young people, do you think you would have been able to afford the premiums for private health insurance at your age? or should the UK be pushing for the NHS to be made stronger so that cases like yours are picked up and treated earlier?

[hauskalainen]

oneki is wrong. Katie says nothing about her district or that she does not like the NHS, What Katie wanted was a reversal of the decision not to fund free pap smears for people under 25 because the science shows it MOSTLY to be a waste of time and money. Katie is one of those rarities for whom a pap smear under 25 may have prevented a cancer from spreading. Her being the exception does not make the rule. T

he fact is that, as in the U.S. Katie could have paid for a pap smear privately.

[dauntless111]

indeed. I would doubt that even a private HMO would allow a Pap test as that age. She would probably have had to pay for it anyway.

This makes the NHS look very bad indeed, but as you say, very unlucky.

[dauntless111]

This is a shocking story and of course, horror stories happen in Universal Health Care.

But if I were to count the horror stories overall. There are wayyyyyy more in the Private US System as it currently stands.

Good luck Katie!

[hauskalainen]

In Britain, everyone has choices. There are private hospitals and private insurers. And a free service from public hospitals and family physicians. Katie was really complaining that the NHS would not PAY for her pap test at her young age. Its very RARE to have cancer at that age. She could have paid for a test privately. She was very unlucky. But so are people who are hit by lightning. The NHS draws a line on funding which everyone can cross if they wish.

[chrisinbarnes]

Stupid bitch may well have cost poor Americans there only chance of healthcare. Happy? Naive beyond belief - next time someone asks for an interview - ask who they represent. Self publicists like you are dangerous

[oneki]

You all should not slag of Katie, she was tricked. Another example how the media gradually is making us all into zombies. What she complained abot was the fact that the system did not extend to her district not that she did not like the NHS. The media are always lying about everything.They have turned us all in sheep. TIME TO WAKE UP. KATIE could have been any on of us.

[strictlyreadingforum]

What an idiot Katie Brickel is... seriously. If she has a problem with the NHS, a free service for people that can't afford it, why not go private and stop moaning (this applies to everyone). She is hurt and upset and blaming the NHS for her cancer it seems.

Would she rather old people work till they die to pay for health care? Selfish selfish selfish.

[rachellightbird]

honestly, we in the uk can choose health insurance, grrrrrrrrrr..... you in the us ar 37th in the league, we are 18th, neither is good enough, France and Italy are top and they have state funded health care, its just ours needs more money

[mrjonnewman]

Lying fuckers!

[twincrier]

How much does a pap cost? Doctors won't tell us, insurance won't tell us. Healthcare is the only product that we cannot shop for and it's the one product we need most. Can you imagine how cheap medical care would be if patients (consumers) had choices?