The Crowd -- B.W. Cook

“I want to talk about the cost of health care. If Medicare and private

insurance do not cover my personal medical bills, I can afford to pay for

the health care I need. What happens to those who can’t?”

Geraldine Ferraro -- 1984 candidate for vice president of the United

States, attorney, author, international policy expertand cancer patient

-- addressed an overflow crowd at the 15th annual Circle 1000 Founders

Brunch in support of the Hoag Hospital Cancer Center. Fighting an ongoing

battle against multiple myeloma, a cancer similar to leukemia, Ferraro

came to Newport Beach last week to share her story and to send the

message that cancer is not “a death sentence.”

The breakfast event, held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach,

sold out with a waiting list. Close to $500,000 was raised by organizers,

including Circle 1000 founder Sandy Sewell and Chairwoman Hylea Bertea.

Ardent supporters attending the meeting included John and Frances

Applegate, Ronnie Allumbaugh, Barbara Bowie, Margaret Buckingham, Dori

Caillouette, Pat Cox, Ruth Feuerstein, Arden Flamson, Lula and Marion

Halfacre, Nora Hester, Ann Howard, Jim and Nora Johnson, and Marie-France

Lefebvre.

Ferraro’s comment on health care costs sent a chill through the

ballroom filled with doctors, health care professionals and people facing

dilemmas of care versus cost. Both inside and outside the city limits of

this wealthy coastal community, thousands of people are unable to balance

the scales of care versus cost.

Ferraro attempted to humanize the crisis.

“I have been working in health care issues for decades,” she said.

“They were always issues about other people. Now it’s about me.”

The erudite politician who grew up in New York City and was raised by

her mother and a close knit Catholic community of nuns added, “All of a

sudden, government policy on health care has become personal.”

Ferraro was diagnosed with cancer in December 1998. She shared her

personal shock, experienced by many cancer patients when they learn of

their illness. Ferraro was told that her cancer was incurable.

“Thank God it’s me and not one of my children,” Ferraro told the Hoag

assemblage. “This was my very first response to the news. Then I thought,

why me? Cancer is not in my family.”

Her doctors wanted Ferraro to immediately go on heavy doses of

steroids. The no-nonsense attorney who is paid respectable sums to advise

multinational corporations on policy admitted that she avoided the

doctors’ advice because she was going on a family vacation. “All my

clothes looked really good,” shared Ferraro, as the crowd joined her in

laughter.

Eventually, the steroids would help fight the cancer, but the side

effects would also be dramatic.

“They are mood altering, and frankly I couldn’t stand me,” she said.

The steroid treatment was just the beginning. Ferraro underwent stem

cell transplants. It was surgery or death. The woman who said she had no

problems facing the Russians at the height of the Cold War found herself

at the mercy of circumstance in her own personal life.

“I’m a lucky woman,” she said. “I have the best doctors. I was

diagnosed early. And I have an incredible support system in my husband,

family, co-workers, friends and associates.”

Ferraro was quick to point out that most people are not so fortunate.

“Every day I consider my life more of a blessing. What happens next,

only God knows, and she’s not telling,” mused Ferraro, moving on to

tackle such issues as delays in Food and Drug Administration approval of

new drugs.

“It takes two to seven years for a new drug to be approved,” she said.

“We must improve the process.”

Ferraro added that there is increased hope in the fact that Tommy

Thompson, who is overseeing the FDA, has a wife suffering from breast

cancer.

“It’s terrible that a personal crises spurs movement, but it’s a fact

of life,” Ferraro said.

The biggest issue of the address centered on the role of big insurance

companies in funding what is known as “evolving treatment.” In other

words, many seriously ill patients need experimental treatment that is

not necessarily approved, based largely on cost factors.

“Private profit can not override public good,” Ferraro said. “There

also can be no public health protection with public investment. A nation

gets the health care it deserves.”

Major underwriters of the presentation were Julia and George Argyos,

Ginny and Peter Ueberroth, Lia and Victor Assad, Susan Bartlett and

Edouard de Limburg, Sandy and Ron Livingston, Hyla and Richard Bertea,

Sandy Sewell and Arden Flamson, attending the breakfast with family and

close friends, who included daughter-in-laws Billie and Kathleen

Flamson, and daughter Leslie Moore, as well as Julie Terry, Suzy

Metcalfe, Rita Getzelman and Robin Turner.

Major applause rose from the ranks as Ginny Ueberroth advised the

breakfast that Arden Flamson and her team of fund-raisers had reached

$46.5 million toward a goal of $50 million to fund the Women’s Health

Center at Hoag.

“And in less than two years,” confided a modest, yet proud, Flamson in

a private moment.

Ferraro ended the presentation by sharing that her cancer is in

remission and wishing the same for any and all listening who might also

be fighting the disease. The upbeat and classy lady is testament to what

good people can do when they set their minds to lofty goals.

* THE CROWD appears Thursdays and Saturdays.