Big headed babies 'more prone to cancer'...

[Xerxes & Friends]

I just got my second phone call in the last few months trying to sell me insurance against "women's cancers". (Despite the fact that we are signed up to the TPS, we still get the odd sales call).  I am very annoyed with myself because once again, my response was to be so overwhelmed with anger and disgust that I just wanted to get off the phone as soon as possible.  So, just like the first time, I blurted out "Look, I've already GOT cancer*" and got off the phone as soon as I could.  And then felt stupid and angry.  I didn't get the company's name, and I didn't make the point to them that we were on the TPS and I should report them as they could be liable for a fine for breaking the TPS code.  I physically couldn't stay on the phone long enough to take the piss out of their ridiculous, type-specific remit - "women's cancers" indeed!  What if you get some other kind of cancer?  "Fuck you, bitch!  WRONG cancer - you get NOTHING!"  And, of course, I didn't have the coolness, presence of mind or eloquence to berate them for profiting from people's fears and paranoia, and exploiting MY disease and my misfortune to make money from other people's anxiety - anxiety which is constantly being stoked by the media endlessly banging on about cancer, manufacturing scare stories to keep it on the front pages.  

Look.  Here is a 'story' about cancer.    To me, it doesn't seem to add anything useful to the public's knowledge of the risks and avoidance of cancer.  It is a tiny study based on a tiny sample group and it's 'conclusion', if true, constitutes only a tiny fraction of the risk factors associated with breast cancer.  Plus, there's very little the readers can do about it - unlike, say, smoking or diet, it's not something they can change.  It is something that might be of interest to those involved in cancer research, but not much use to anyone else beyond giving them something extra to worry about.

Look at the top right hand corner of the page.  "Sponsored by Virgin Money - Give the big 'C' the big 'V'."  Look at the top left of the page.  "Partners: Cancer Cover..." etc.  Link leads to big advert for Virgin cancer insurance.

Nothing much newsworthy has happened lately in the world of cancer care.  It *has* changed - many, many, many improvements have been made and are made every day.  The treatment, management of side effects, and cure rate for most cancers have improved hugely over the last ten years, and are almost unrecognisable when compared to the therapeutics of twenty years ago, but the improvements have been made little by little, in tiny increments - a breakthrough drug here, a 25-year study there - and these sorts of things never make the headlines.  But the basic facts always remain the same - cancer exists, some people get it, some of them survive and some of them don't.  And yet somehow, it keeps showing up on the front pages.  Complete non-stories are blown out of all proportion - a woman is refused a drug that might not do her any good and might actually cause her harm in the long run. An actor's dad has a common form of cancer.  Look here:   Soft drinks linked to cancer... Could antiperspirants cause brest cancer?...  Red meat 'can raise cancer risk'... Left handers 'more likely to get breast cancer'...  Big headed babies 'more prone to cancer'... No, I didn't make that last one up!!!  Front pages, all the time, cancercancercancercancercancer.  Wooooooh!  Scary.  Little box advert in the corner: "Get cancer insurance".  

I am not a consipracy theorist, I just think it is repulsively coincidental.  I do believe that the media hysteria came first, and that the finance companies subsequently jumped on the bandwagon of the public hysteria created by the media - but now they are doing it hand in hand.

By the way, if you are worried about what kind of treatment you will get or how you will manage financially if you get cancer, here is my experience.  I have received enough in SSP and benefits to allow me to continue a comfortable lifestyle and haven't had to worry about finances at all.  I have received excellent medical treatment, been offered numerous complimentary therapies and been provided with free volunteer transport to and from hospital, all on the NHS.  I know that I have been fortunate to receive all of these due to the area I live in, and know of people in other parts of the country who are struggling to pay for transportation costs.  If you are so concerned about it that you are considering taking out insurance, why not put that concern, time and money into trying to make sure the current levels of state provision are protected and extended across the country?  Turning your back on the NHS and getting private insurance is just going to lead to the current state provisions being eroded further.


*May not still be true

Edit:  Original thread title was a bit shit

[Oscar]

That's rough Xerxes, don't berate yourself for what you said, you probably made the caller feel like shit.
I've never had one of these phone calls, but the idea is shocking. What use is health insurance for specific illnesses? I'm starting to think that the only type of insurance that is worth taking out, is one that just covers you for "any health need".

I just got duped by travel insurance (" no, we only cover you for three possible accidents, and you didn't have one of those") and I think any insurance company (may be all of them) that only covers in very specific situations is useless - How can you know? If I ever take out insurance again, I want to know that it will protect me, no matter what, not that I'll have to play a complicated game of trickery and small print.

[Xerxes & Friends]

That's rough Xerxes, don't berate yourself for what you said, you probably made the caller feel like shit.

Yeah, I wouldn't normally want to do that to a telesales person - it's just a job - but I do think there must be other career paths open to a person before they sunk so low as to take that job.  Prostitution, for instance, gets far more respect from me.

I'm starting to think that the only type of insurance that is worth taking out, is one that just covers you for "any health need".

Or "the NHS", as it is otherwise known.  Use it or lose it, folks.

I

[goldfish]

The cold call sales of 'female cancer' insurance have been on the go for at least 5 years. I had a very brief stint working in a call centre (I was just out of uni and flat broke) back in the summer of 2000. First thing I was put on was flogging life insurance to people who subscribed to the Littlewoods catalogue. That was bad enough. Almost 2 months later, the campaign finished and I was bumped up to supervisor for no apparent reason. The new campaign was cold-calling women in order to sell them insurance against female cancers. I lasted approximately 2 and a half hours before I told the managers that I simply couldn't bring myself to do it. That afternoon I went to my temping agency to request a new post and by the start of the following week I was working with Marie Curie Cancer Care's local fundraising office (one of the best jobs I've ever had).

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

EDIT: Sorry, my mistake

EDIT- also, you can get off my back mate- this must be the first time I've done it this year.

[Suttonpubcrawl]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4817290.stm

More along those lines.

Do you actually read people's posts before you reply to them? That story was linked to in the original post that started this topic! Alright, so it was on the Daily Mail website rather than the BBC one, but come on.

[LadyDay]

I've never had one of those calls, but if I did I'd be putting a complaint in sharpish. That's annoyed me as much as the bloody ambulance chasers who leave their sodding compensation leaflets in casualty.

[waste of chops]

There was an article about cold-callers (including those selling female-specific cancer insurance) in the Guardian a couple of months ago. To summarise one particular bit, a cold-caller tells the call recipient about a dear friend who died of cancer ("It cost us £12,000 to give her a proper burial, cost me and my brother everything we had, but it was well worth it because she was very dear to us."), then admits to the journalist afterwards that he just made it up to try and sell the insurance. Utter, utter cunt. So, didn't feel too bad about telling them where to stick their insurance, it could have been another one of them.