Marla: Employment Insurance

Employment Insurance: The interruption of her income triggered a spiral of consequences. The sick benefit she received through Employment Insurance just covered her mortgage payments, so she fell behind on her utility bills. Eventually she could not afford groceries: "I didn't believe I would go someday to the food bank ... but you know what? I went there." , according to Hamilton Spectator. I thought about Marla a lot as I read the Code Red cancer series in The in the fall, because when I asked Marla how she would describe her experience of cancer care she said, "I'm happy ... everything went very well." How is it that in a country like Canada, some people with cancer get more, better, faster care and others get less, lower quality, less timely care? Do we require patients to act in a particular manner in order to get health care in Canada? It seems absurd, but we are seeing this message more and more. I met "Marla" a few years ago, when I was doing a study about women's experiences of cancer care. Marla was parenting three children on her own and had a job as a personal support worker when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. When the car dealership threatened to repossess her car she called them, explained her situation, and was rebuffed; she had to give up her car. She went back to work soon after "because it was impossible when they take the car and we have no food and I don't know what to do ... Even if I'm not feeling very well yet, I have to go to work." (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.