2,977 died 20 years ago on the attacks on September 11th.
And while we remember those lives lost 20 years ago, I don’t think we talk enough about issues that happened after.
410,000 people breathed in toxic debris from the attacks.
Over 10,000 first responders have since been diagnosed with cancer.
4,000 first responders 20 years later are gone due to illnesses or conditions linked with 9/11.
Half of those 4,000 being cancer.
In 2019, a 10.2 billion dollar bill congress and was signed focused on funding the victims fund for another 10 years.
10.2 billion sounds like a lot, but for cancer and other diseases, it’s actually fairly low.
Right now, over 500 people are being currently being treated for cancer linked with 9/11.
To give an idea of how much cancer costs, the average person with cancer just on the medication alone cost about $10,000 a month.
Times that by 500 and that alone cost the cancer fund 5 million dollars a month.
That’s without screenings.
Without chemo.
Without any other testing or surgeries.
Over 5 million from the month every single month on just basic treatment drugs.
After that, there are thousands of people in remission who it could return for and they have increased medical costs for the rest of their lives. Finally, tens of thousands of people could still be victim to what happened.
Is 10.2 billion enough to cover it?
Probably
Problem is this was pretty heavily underfunded in the 2000s, 2010s and even now will have to be tight on the budget.
There also were hundreds of 9/11 victims who had to pay for things out of pocket before the programs were implemented and most not reimbursed.
Just an idea on cost to that, the average cancer patient post insurance spends $12,000 a year on out of pocket cost related to treatment.
And final thing is how much we were spending on Afghanistan & Iraq.
The Afghanistan War this year pre withdrawal cost 3 billion dollars a month.
14 weeks in Afghanistan this year managed to cost more over what will be spent treating thousands of 9/11 victims for 10 years, with no promise they’ll get more money at the end of the decade.
There was a reason Afghanistan happened and a pretty good one.
There was a reason Iraq happened and while not the best, there was some rational.
But the idea of spending so much on the offense in response to an attack while not leaving funds on the table for those who suffered was just a really big mistake.