Many cancer patients juggle care along with financial pain
Josephine Rizo survived chemotherapy, surgery and radiation, but breast cancer treatment wrecked her finances.
Money was already tight when doctors told the Phoenix resident she had an aggressive form of the disease. Then she took a pay cut after going on disability leave, and eventually lost her job and insurance coverage. During treatment, Rizo got swamped with more than $50,000 in medical bills.
“My concern was, ‘Am I going to die?’” she said. “I had to kind of focus 100 percent on my health to make sure I was around for my kids.”
As treatment costs soar and insurance coverage shrinks, hospitals and patient advocates around the U.S. are rushing to offer more help to patients like Rizo, who had no financial counseling. Cancer centers are hiring experts to help patients navigate the insurance system, while nonprofits are teaching people to think about handling costs when treatments starts instead of waiting for a financial crisis to hit.
“We know a lot of very solidly middle class families, they were fine and then … their financial lives changed,” said Jean Sachs, CEO of the nonprofit Living Beyond Breast Cancer. “They’re not prepared for the cost of cancer, let alone the care.”
Facebook chief faces EU grilling over his ‘digital monster’
BRUSSELS — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced tough questions from European Union lawmakers Tuesday over what one of them branded Zuckerberg’s “digital monster,” and he apologized for the way the social network has been used to produce fake news, interfere in elections and sweep up people’s personal data.
At a hearing in the European Parliament in Brussels, legislators sought explanations about the growing number of false Facebook accounts and whether Facebook will comply with new EU privacy rules, but many were left frustrated by Zuckerberg’s lack of answers.
After short opening remarks, Zuckerberg listened to all the questions first, and then responded to them all at once. There was no back-and-forth with lawmakers, as happened during his testimony in front of the U.S. Congress last month.
As a result, he was able to avoid giving some answers and ran out of time to provide others.
His appearance came at a difficult time for Facebook. In March it was alleged that political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica used the data of millions of Facebook users to target voters during political campaigns, including the one that brought Donald Trump to the presidency.
Whether it was “fake news, foreign interference in elections and developers misusing people’s information,” Zuckerberg said, “we didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibilities.”
“That was a mistake, and I’m sorry for it,” he added during the hearing, which ran just over an hour and a half.
Texas school shooting suspect’s father thinks he was bullied
SANTA FE, Texas — A 17-year-old student accused of fatally shooting 10 people at a Texas high school should be seen as a “victim” because he may have recently been bullied, causing him to lash out, his father said.
In a phone interview over the weekend with Greece’s Antenna TV, Antonios Pagourtzis said he wished he could have stopped the killing Friday at Santa Fe High School. His voice cracked as he described how he told police to let him inside the school so his son, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, could kill him instead. He said he suspects his son was under pressure, perhaps due to bullying.
“Something must have happened now, this last week,” he told the station. “Somebody probably came and hurt him, and since he was a solid boy, I don’t know what could have happened. I can’t say what happened. All I can say is what I suspect as a father.”
The suspect’s attorney, Nicholas Poehl, has said he is investigating whether his client endured any “teacher-on-student” bullying after reading reports of the teen being mistreated by football coaches. The school district issued a statement saying it investigated the accusations and “confirmed that these reports were untrue.”
The elder Pagourtzis said his son took a legally owned shotgun and handgun from his closet before leaving for school that day. The teen didn’t own firearms of his own, he said.
Cohen partner pleads guilty in deal requiring cooperation
NEW YORK — A longtime business partner of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, has pleaded guilty to tax fraud in a deal that requires him to cooperate in any ongoing investigations.
New York City taxi magnate Evgeny Freidman entered the guilty plea on Tuesday at a court in Albany.
A person briefed on the plea deal says Freidman agreed to cooperate with federal or state authorities.
The person wasn’t authorized to publicly discuss the case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
State prosecutors charged Freidman last year with pocketing $5 million in state taxes on taxis he managed.
Congress moves to dismantle key post-crisis bank rules
WASHINGTON — Congress moved Tuesday to dismantle a chunk of the rules framework for banks, installed to prevent a recurrence of the 2008 financial crisis that brought millions of lost jobs and foreclosed homes.
The House voted 258-159 to approve legislation rolling back the Dodd-Frank law, notching a legislative win for President Donald Trump, who made gutting the landmark law a campaign promise.
The Republican-led legislation, pushed by Wall Street banks as well as regional banks and smaller institutions, garnered some votes from House Democrats. Similarly, the bill splintered Democrats into two camps when the Senate voted 67-31 to approve it in March.
The bill raises the threshold at which banks are deemed so big and plugged into the financial grid that if one were to fail it would cause major havoc. Those banks are subject to stricter capital and planning requirements. Backers of the legislation are intent on loosening the restraints on them, asserting that would boost lending and the economy.
The legislation is aimed at especially helping small and medium-sized banks, including community banks and credit unions. But critics argue that the likelihood of future taxpayer bailouts will be greater once it becomes law. They point to increases in banks’ lending and profits since Dodd-Frank’s enactment in 2010 as debunking the assertion that excessive regulation of the banking industry is stifling growth.
Palestinians ask ICC to investigate alleged crimes by Israel
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Accusing Israel of systematic crimes, including apartheid in the occupied territories, Palestinians on Tuesday urged the International Criminal Court to open an investigation that could ultimately lead to charges against Israeli leaders.
Israel immediately slammed the Palestinian move as “legally invalid.”
The referral seeks an investigation into Israeli policies in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip since Palestine accepted the ICC’s jurisdiction in 2014, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki told reporters in The Hague.
This includes Israeli settlement policies in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, as well as bloodshed in the Gaza Strip. Israel and Gaza’s ruling Hamas militant group fought a 50-day war in 2014, and in recent weeks, Israeli fire has killed over 100 Palestinians during mass protests along the Gaza border since March.
By ratcheting up tensions with Israel, the referral to the ICC would seem to further diminish prospects of success for an expected U.S. peace plan. U.S. officials have said President Donald Trump is to unveil the plan in the coming weeks.
The last round of peace talks broke down four years ago without any visible process, and mistrust between Israel and the Palestinians is running high.