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I wish there were actual details about what kind of insurance plan the Clippers have for their employees that would not cover surgery for prostate cancer.
http://www.journaltimes.com/sports/b...cc4c002e0.htmlKim Hughes was in trouble, more trouble than he ever envisioned.
While working as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers seven years ago, Hughes was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
But Hughes was told not to worry. His doctor assured him the cancer was slow growing and felt Hughes could wait several months before undergoing surgery.
But Hughes had an issue with that. The Clippers were about to go to training camp and Hughes, a basketball junkie with a voracious work ethic, didn't want to miss a day of work.
"My doctor told me he would do the surgery in a couple of months and then I'd be off my feet for a couple of months," said Hughes, who played at the University of Wisconsin. "He said, ‘You know this is major surgery.' "
Hughes confided in Mike Dunleavy, then the Clippers head coach, about his dilemma. Dunleavy suggested Hughes consult with another doctor he knew and perhaps Hughes' surgery could be sooner.
Dunleavy's suggestion paid off. Hughes' new doctor, Stuart Holden, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, was receptive to doing the surgery the following week.
But then Hughes encountered yet another major obstacle.
"I contacted the Clippers about medical coverage and they said the surgery wouldn't be covered," Hughes said. "I said, ‘Are you kidding me?' And they said if they did it for one person, they'd have to do for everybody else."
When Dunleavy learned the Clippers wouldn't cover the cost of Hughes' surgery, he mentioned it to his players.
Several of them, including now Milwaukee Bucks forward Corey Maggette, Chris Kaman, Elton Brand and Marko Jaric, were taken aback by the news and decided to offer their assistance.
"Kim was one of our coaches and he's a really good friend of mine, too," Maggette said. "He was in a situation where the Clippers' medical coverage wouldn't cover his surgery. I thought it was a great opportunity to help someone in need, to do something that Christ would do.
"It shows your humanity, that you care for other people and not just yourself. Kim was in a life-and-death situation."
It was indeed a dicey time for Hughes. After a biopsy was taken, he learned his prostate cancer was much worse than he believed.
The cancer had quickly spread and was on the brink of moving to other areas of his body.
If Hughes had delayed the surgery, and if Maggette and his teammates hadn't provided the necessary financial assistance, Hughes doesn't know what would have occurred.
Well, actually, he does.
"Those guys saved my life," Hughes said. "They paid the whole medical bill. It was like $70,000 or more. It wasn't cheap.
"It showed you what classy people they are. They didn't want me talking about it; they didn't want the recognition because they simply felt it was the right thing to do."
Hughes said he will be forever grateful to Brand, Jaric, Kaman and Maggette. In fact, Hughes said every time he runs into any of them, he thanks them from the bottom of his heart.
Maggette said that was indeed the case, laughing how he has repeatedly told Hughes over the years it wasn't necessary.
"Kim thanks me every time he sees me; he does that every single time," Maggette said smiling. "I've said to him, ‘Kim, come on. You don't have to do that. You're good.'
"It just shows you what kind of person he is, to keep thanking me all the time for that. Like I said, it was just my time to serve another human being.
"I think if anyone on my team is in that kind of situation, I would try to help him out if I could. That's just the person I am. I was raised that way."
Hughes said Maggette's concern and generosity illustrate how sometimes people erroneously perceive others.
"Corey is perceived by some people as not being a good person because he seems to be aloof and arrogant," Hughes said. "But they don't know him. He's a good man; he's a great man.
"You can have all the money, all the success, all that stuff, all those so-called important things in life, but in the end, you're judged by what you did for your fellow man. Corey will always be an important part of my life. What he and those other guys did for me put things in perspective.''
I try to root for this organization but it's in' hopeless.....
I wish there were actual details about what kind of insurance plan the Clippers have for their employees that would not cover surgery for prostate cancer.
Very honorable at what Maggette, Brand, Jaric, and Kaman did for Kim Hughes. I remember the Clippers' tandem of Lawler and Smith made mention of what was done for him and that is a remarkable showing of compassion from athletes whom usually get a greedy rep instead of a generous one.
Not surprising that the Clips would deny one of their own the cost of surgery. That's just how cheap Sterling is.
That's not right, at least the Clippers should of covered half of it at least.
Nice to hear these stories.
I can't believe the NBA allows owners like Sterling to repeatedly do this. Eventually they should step in.
You don't always see people do the right thing....
I have a newfound respect for these players as human beings.
All the stories I've heard about Maggette portray him as a great person..everybody, including myself, doesn't think of him that way(before hearing stories like these), just because of the style of play he shows on the court, tbh..
As for Sterling..the guy is worth over 500 mil, you would think he would have a legit insurance plan for his staff..
Props to the players who helped this man.
I can't believe their plan wouldn't cover this. Unreal. Like Harlem said, you have a respect for people that step up, do the right thing, and pay for what they owe. Clippers owed it to their employee and they didn't step up. People who don't shouldn't be allowed to exist.
CROFL NBA refereeing.
My father in law was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year, and he had surgery 10 days ago (he's fine now). They took out the whole prostate and sent it for analisys.
The whole procedure, including 3 days internation at the hospital was around 10.000 argentine pesos (around 2.500 USD). How come the one in the article is 70.000 USD??? They used gold knives??
Fishy.
American vs. Argentine Medical Care possibly?
Also, could be due to the expertise of the surgeon that he was attempting to have surgery from. I would also venture to guess the amount of damage the metastasizing cancer has caused.
I know that w/o med. insurance, my dad's cancer surgery would've been nearly $60,000 with all that was included. Granted, he didn't have prostate cancer...but still.
The premise is that Sterling and Co. have routinely been the s of the ownership world (human race, too).
Same reason you can cross the border to Canada or Mexico and buy medication at a 10th of the cost compared to here.
Some of these things (cancer) between multiple surgeries, hospital stays, treatments and medicine, can run upward of a million dollars.
american health care is one of the biggest jokes in the world. And a pretty sad one.
This.
But tbh universal health care is just a tad less bad, but it's still bad.
The world is one messed up place.
It's a good Maggette was overpaid
i wonder if the coach was black? if he wasnt imagine if he was black. would have been way worse sterling would have probably fired him.
LOL Sterling is crooked as . He's a dirty slumlord who owns a load of property. Im pretty sure he's a billionaire.
as a cancer survivor, I say Donald Sterling. That hold ...maybe him and KG can share a room together
American medicine is for-profit, HUGE profit. In that $70K, probably more than half is profit.
A couple friends had it in SA. A US robotic surgeon costs about $8K, then $2K for the anethesiologist, MRIs, and $15K - $20K for one night in the hospital and robot rental. About $30K total for about 24 hours in the hospital.
That $70K was for surgery, plus radiation (for the cancer outside of the gland), multiple MRIs, and probably hormonal treatment.
Even if the Clips health plan for staff was catastrophe insurance ($3K-$5K deductible), it would have covered a catastrophe like cancer surgery and radiation. This story put Clips ownership in even worse light than being a basketball catastrophe.
It's not fishy. Differences:
1) Salary of doctor (which needs to include doctor's malpractice insurance)
2) Salary of anesthesiologist (which needs to include anesthesiologist's malpractice insurance)
3) Hospital malpractice insurance (in Argieland there's a tort limit for malpractice, not so in the US)
4) Cost of hospital stay (free or cheap in Argieland, about $3000/day in the US)
5) Some of the medicine cannot be generics (due to patents in the US, most all generics in Argieland)
6) Cost of labs/tests (overload/repe ion of tests in the US due to CYA at ude in case of a lawsuit, no such problem in Argentina)
That's why Medical Tourism is widespread...
EDIT: Forgot to add because it's kind of obvious around these places, but the Doctor, Anesthesiologist and Hospital all make a fairly decent earning out of the whole thing. Not necessarily always the case in Argieland.
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