Cancer Screening

[show theme music] >> hi, this is phoenix citycouncilman sal diciccio, and this is "on the issues." this program is going to rockyour world, because i'm going to show you things that arehappening behind the scenes that you never get a chance to see. matter of fact, things that eventhe news media doesn't even pick up. you've heard where the city ofphoenix is going to raise your

property tax by $37 million. let me cover with you thebasic facts so that you understand that you and yourfamily are going to be paying this money for no reason. i'll walk you through what'sbeen happening, give you a little history. then i'm going to show you thegovernment waste that goes behind it, and how governmentprofits on the poor. so i'm going to show you a fewthings here today that you don't

get a chance to see. but let me give you at least anexample what's happening around the country right now. what you're seeing around thecountry is an incredible amount of anguish, disenfranchisementwith the political system. you're seeing on the right andthe left, where the republicans, democrats, conservatives, andliberals, are finally starting to see that possibly, theirgovernment's not working for them the way it needs to workfor them.

you're seeing this across thecountry, not just here in arizona. because what is happening rightnow, the insiders, who've controlled the government for solong, have literally designed it so that they are protectingthemselves. and by protecting themselves,they're taking money out of the pockets from you, and they'repaying themselves all these dollars, these millions, if notbillions of dollars across the country.

what you've seen across thecountry, you've seen it in other places, where people have beenrioting. they've been saying things like,"hey, we're not getting our fair share," and then you have otherpeople that are saying, "hey, we have billions of dollars comingyour way." they're both right. the poor have not been gettingthe services that they deserve. they don't get it. even though we talk about it,they don't get it, and i'm going

to show you how we got there. before we get there, let me showyou a little bit of what's been happening in the last year inthe city of phoenix. in the last year alone, the cityof phoenix now wants to raise your property taxes. that's going to be in july,first week of july. they want a $37 million a yearincrease in your property tax, even though the city of phoenixhas the highest revenue that we've ever had in our history,and we have a $60 million

surplus. you're thinking, that's notlogical. why do they want to get more taxout of my pocketbook, right? let me show you what's beenhappening. $37 million a year in a propertytax increase that the phoenix city council, the politiciansare going to be voting on this year. this is on top of a$31.5 billion mass transit tax increase for trains that havebeen outdated.

most people have moved over tothe uber system or lyft, that's really the new trend, placeslike that in california are already starting to look atthat. but instead, the city of phoenixput in outdated, a train system, $31.5 billion. they've also increased yourwater tax by $15 million a year. that all happened this year. then third, which most people inthe public don't understand what occurred here, there's an$8 million a year commuter tax.

you're thinking, what is that? we want to encourage people touse and commute. we want them to carpool whenthey go to the airport, right? so what's happened, the city ofphoenix realized that a lot of these parking lots that areoutside of the city of phoenix airport area, they're gettingfull up, because the city of phoenix is so expensive to parkthere. so what the city of phoenix didis they said, "well, let's charge this commuter tax onthem," and then that passed this

year, too, on a very slim vote,a 5-4 vote. matter of fact, the water taxincrease that occurred this year, you won't start seeingthat until this summer -- that $15 million a year? that was another 5-4 vote. let's evaluate where it's going,what's happening here with that. let's start here, because i wantto show you an example of government waste. in the city of phoenix, the mostexpensive private sector

apartment complex at 26th streetand camelback, private sector, was sold at $277,000 a door. that's per door. that's in the private sector,right? average housing in the city ofphoenix is right around $200,000 a home. not to be outdone, the city ofphoenix is building affordable housing apartments on24th street and van buren, on property that we already own,for $281,000 a door.

i got into a discussion withsome of my other colleagues. i said, "look, this is anoutrage, because not only are you taking money from the peoplewho literally work hard, the hard-working taxpayers -- you'retaking more than you need, but you're also not providing theamount of services to the poor." we can build those for less than$150,000 a unit. so why not do that? that was a close vote here as well. matter of fact, we ended uptrying to stop it.

that didn't happen. so the city of phoenix is nowspending $32 million of your money on housing that they callaffordable housing, at 24th street and van buren,more expensive than the most expensive apartment buildingever sold in the city of phoenix at $277,000 a door on26th street and camelback. the question is where is themoney going? this is really what's happeningaround the country right now. the government has beenprofiting on the poor.

they've been taking monies away. we literally could providedouble the housing for the poor that we've deemed necessary thatthey need to have. they need to have a home, right? people know i'm conservative,but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether you'reright or left, conservative or liberal, money matters. if you're using it and wastingit on things like this, and not providing the services that youpromised the public that you

wanted to do, you run into aproblem. sooner or later you run out ofmoney, and then you don't provide the services. and then that's why you'restarting to see all these things happening at the national level,same things that are happening here at the local level. the politicians are notlistening to the public. they're not doing all the rightthings that they're supposed to be doing.

a lot of these things, they endup, this is all done by self-interest. that's what caused this tooccur. the city of phoenix now took inall these millions of dollars, kept it and distributed itamongst themselves, instead of providing these services to thepoor. and the question you run into ishow are we getting here? what is really happening behindthe scenes? again, the news media is justnot giving you the right

information. these are all numbers that camefrom the city of phoenix. these are their numbers,not mine. these are the things that theresearch we've done. it's taken us months to dig intothis. but if you look at it, look atour pension liability and our pension cost. $3.5 billion in unfunded pensionliability. you're thinking, what does thatmean?

that means we don't have themoney. unfunded means we don't have thefunds appropriated to fund the pension costs as they're comingin the future. so what's happening at the cityof phoenix is that we don't have the funds to do this, and we'retaking more and more money out of your pocketbook. if you look at our retirementcosts every year, it's over $320 million a year we spend onjust retirement costs alone. you're thinking, "well, sal,you've been able to show me the

problem. what's the real solution here? how do we solve this?"i wouldn't be coming here if i didn't have a solution for that. it comes down to this, and it'sreally simple. it's no different than how yourun your own household. the city of phoenix has nostrategic plan. we don't. you would think that we are.

we're a $3.5 billion operation,with no true strategic plan of where we want to go, where wewant to take it, what is strategic, what isn't, and howwe should be partnering with people in the private sector,non-profits, which will be next here. those are the entities who knowwhat they're doing. we shouldn't be into everybusiness. so every time we take on a cityof phoenix employee, we have now committed ourselves to 50 yearsof making sure we take care of

them. that's fine to be able to dothat. nobody here has to lose theirjob at the city of phoenix. any new jobs that are open oughtto be looked at through a public/private managedcompetition system. what does that mean? it just basically says find thebest way to deliver that service. the city of phoenix has about200 employees that we have that

fixing cars, changing the oil. we have an average cost peremployee, for over 13,000 employees, at $110,000 perperson. it's unsustainable. it creates a structural debt. so the best way to handle thisis to look at every job function and say whether or not we shouldbe doing that internally. everybody still keeps their job. it will probably take seven tonine years or more to solve, but

everybody here gets protected. everyone's safe that way,but we start looking at new models, new ways of deliveringthe same service. most of us would agree that wewant to keep our police and fire under the government control. but landscapers, they should beable to be looked at, especially when you're looking at a cost of$110,000 per person. an oil change is an oil change. we shouldn't be doing that typeof business if it can be done

better, cheaper, and faster inthe private sector. so this is really the solution. i'm going to have a morein-depth program when we're starting to talk about theproperty tax and why you should vote, and literally startcontacting your local politician and tell them no way do we wantthis tax on us. because when you start lookingat this, and you look at all the government waste that's going onat the city of phoenix, and there's a real solution to solveit, that is the direction that

we need to be going on in thecity of phoenix. my next program is going to rackyour world. it's going to be exciting. we're going to be talking withthe american cancer society, so stay tuned, and i want you tostart guessing what could be the second-leading cause of death inarizona when it comes to cancer. think about it. we'll see you in a few seconds. >> i was sitting in myoncologist's office one day, and

realizing that i was veryblessed in that i don't have a lot of the same infirmities thatmany cancer patients have. so i began looking for waysi could give back. i saw an informative speechabout road to recovery, and i thought, that is something icould really do at my own pace, whenever i needed to. >> how did it help me? oh, my gosh. where do you want me to begin?

it's part of me being alivetoday. i was running out oftransportation, and i had all my people, that were doing so muchfor me as they possibly could without losing their jobs. i had to find some helpsomewhere, and that's when i met barb. >> you may feel blessed by whatwe've done for you, but believe me, i feel ten times moreblessed by just being allowed to be your carrier.

>> man: this enables patientslike mr. andrews, who otherwise would have a very, verydifficult time getting the care that they need. not only do they get the carethat they need, they have a social support system as well ashelp with transportation or whatever they need, in order toget here and receive the treatment, and help cure theircancer. >> barb: there's a certaincommonality with cancer survivors, because until you gothrough it, you don't always

know the fears, the anxieties,the celebrations that you have just meeting each new day thebest you can. so it means a great deal to meto be here with wade, and as i was telling him in the car, alot of people don't understand that you may give away tosomebody, but you always wind up getting ten-fold back. so it's been a real blessingto me. >> if you need help, it's there. it's there.

you don't have to get on yourknees and beg for it. all you have to do is let themkonw you need it. it's every day before i go tobed, i'm going to thank god, and when i wake up, i'm going tothank god. welcome back to "on the issues." remember the last segment i saidthis is going to rock your world? because it's going to give youthe information that you need to protect ourself.

this is the american cancersociety. we have sarah boerner here andlisa hall. thank you, ladies, for beinghere today. really appreciate it. i know you have some greatinformation to give people of how they're going to be able toprotect themselves. but what is the second-leadingcause of cancer? let's start off with that, andthen let's go into a little bit into your mission statement.

>> the second-leading cause ofcancer-related deaths in arizona is colorectal cancer. that mirrors the nationalsecond-leading cause of death, again, colorectal cancer forboth men and women combined. >> how many people a yearget it? >> we're looking or expectingthat in 2016, it's expected that about 2,500 individuals willbe diagnosed with colorectal cancer here in arizona. of those individuals, about 980of those will die from

colorectal cancer if they arenot properly treated and screened. >> this is just an easy thingfor people to do, isn't it? it's one of the easiestscreenings you can do, isn't it? >> it is. there's a number of screeningmethods. individuals need to speak withtheir physicians to really find out what is the best screeningmethod for them. for those individuals of averagerisk, we're looking and wanting

individuals to get screened atthe recommended screening age of 50. so 50 to 75 is the recommendedscreening age that individuals, men and women, should be lookingto get screened. a number of tests that they canthen use to get screened, again, considering that they'reaverage-risk individuals, nonsymptomatic, some of thosetests include a high-sensitivity fecal occult blood test, anf.o.b.t. test, or an f.i.t. test, the fecal immunochemicaltest.

these are two stool-based bloodtests that the tests themselves are really just looking toidentify the presence of blood in the stool. if that does occur, then thattest is a positive test, and what's needed at that point is acolonoscopy for those individuals. the colonoscopy then willdetermine whether or not there's cancer that is present, ornon-cancerous polyps. that's what we really hope, thatwe're catching non-cancerous

polyps, that can then beremoved. >> the tests are really simple. they're not that complicated,are they? we just have to get people towant to do it. >> they're not. depending on the kind of testthat you take, as many people are more familiar withcolonoscopies, those are the more invasive tests, because itdoes require some bowel prep work.

and the test itself is just moreinvasive than a take-home stool-based test, such as thef.o.b.t. or the f.i.t. test. and that test is really done inthe privacy of your own home, and then you would return thatkit back to your clinician to have that tested. so those tests are non-invasive,but there are a number of tests that can be taken. a flexible sigmoidoscopy isanother test that can be taken. again, it's a matter of anindividual getting the right

testing based on their medicalhistory and their medical state. >> like any great organizationthat you are, you've been around for quite a few years, andyou've done fantastic work in our community. i have to thank you for all thework that you do. you do the work of angels. you do. it's not an easy thing whatyou do. it really comes down to testing.

getting people prepared, becausea lot of these are so treatable. what is the "80 by 2018"? >> that's a national health careinitiative that was developed through the partnership of theamerican cancer society, the cdc, and the national colorectalcancer round table. which is an organization thatwas actually -- the national colorectal cancer round table,an organization was developed by the american cancer societyand the cdc in 1997. "80 by 2018" is looking at ashared goal of getting people of

average screening age or ofthe recommended screening age, i should say, screened, andhaving that screening rate increased to 80%. currently in arizona, thescreening rate is about 63%, based on the data that we'repulling. but it's about 63% for thegeneral population. if we're looking atfederally-qualified health centers, organizations thatreally work and serve at a higher rate those underservedpopulations, that rate almost

cuts in half to about 34%, andis on par with the national level. so you can see the work thatreally needs to be done there to get that screening rate up to80% for all arizonans that are in that screening age window. >> i think it's just commonsense to tell the public to get screened, because you go throughthis, it could be just horrible for them. their personal lives getdisrupted.

it's a terrible disease, butit's such a preventable disease. >> hill: absolutely. >> and treatable. >> and treatable, that makes iteven more important. if you think about, just on thecost side of it, people think of costs and then they think aboutthe pain and agony that they'd have to go through. just on the cost side, a simpletest, which a lot of these are inexpensive, aren't they?

>> the f.i.t. and the f.o.b.t. tests are fairly minimal as faras cost concerns with respect to a colonoscopy. however, if someone, again, doescomplete a f.o.b.t. or an f.i.t. test, and that test is positive,they will need to complete a colonoscopy. but with some of the changes inhealth care, and the climate that we're in, colonoscopiesfall under the bucket of preventative services, so wewant people to be aware of what

those preventative services looklike. getting a colonoscopy is one ofthem -- getting screened, i should say, for colorectalcancer is one of them. we want people to know that inthat state, they should not have a cost share. >> if someone wanted to getscreened, what do they do? how do they do this? >> the first thing that theywant to do is contact their physician.

we really want to make sure thatthat individual -- we want to have that individual understandtheir current medical state and their medical history. if they have a medical historyof colorectal cancer, then the recommendation is going to bedifferent. it may even be that that personis needing to get screened before the age of 50. that's a dialogue that they needto have with their physician. but in having that dialogue withtheir physician, they can then

determine what is the next beststep as far as testing, whether or not the f.i.t. test is theappropriate test to have, or whether a colonoscopy is theappropriate test to have. >> realistically, it's as simpleas picking up the phone and making one phone call. that's it. it's as simple as that. >> hill: it really is. that's a bit of a challenge,though.

i think for many people, whenthey're feeling well, they don't think to call their physician. so that's a bit of a challenge. but i think that we have toreally understand the importance of preventative care, and reallyexercising our right and our ability to really navigate thehealth system in such a way that we are being proactive about ourhealth care. >> the magic age is 50. it's going to take me another 20years to be 50 -- just kidding.

sarah, tell us about the relayfor life. luckily, every year it's been inmy district. tell us about it, what you'veaccomplished out of that, too, what it is. you have more events. >> yes, the relay for life isthe signature fundraising event for the american cancer society. in greater maricopa county, wehave over 30 events that happen annually.

now, we just went through ourspring season, and i would like to give kudos to the ahwatukee foothills relay. they raised almost $68,000 intheir event. >> diciccio: that's a lot. >> it's phenomenal. a lot of times, people, if theyhaven't heard of relay, the first question i get asked is"how far do i have to run?" well, it's not a running race. it's an opportunity for acommunity to come together to

raise money for the americancancer society, to celebrate survivors, to remember peoplethat we have lost to the disease, and then to take actionto try to find a cure and diminish suffering from thedisease. so typically, as i said, there'sover 30. they're community-based events,and typically they're held on a football field that has a track,and well before the event occurs, the people create teamsand they fund-raise, and then the day of the event, they cometo celebrate their efforts, and

the other things that imentioned, and then the relay part comes in because we like tohave at least one person from each team walking the track atall times. in a sense, it's passing thebaton to the next person, and that's why it's called a relay. they're really fun, and there'sfood and music. >> a lot of people, too. >> boerner: a lot of people, andit's really focused on the community.

they don't all look the same,but they do have some exact similarities. but they're really great, and wedo have events in the fall, once it starts to cool down. i think we have eight or nine ofthem coming up in the fall, and anybody that wants toparticipate in those, they can go to relayforlife.org and putin their zip code or the city name, and we can find it. >> i want to make sure, too,that people can contact you.

at the bottom of our screenhere, we have the contact information for the americancancer society. the other thing that i think weneed to bring up, too, i think it's interesting. when you talk about community,cancer doesn't care. >> it does not discriminate. >> diciccio: it doesn't, it justgoes. >> it goes. >> one of the things that youdo, i think, is just so

impressive is the level ofawareness. everyone thinks, "why do they dothat?" if you don't tell people, likeprograms like this, and just tell them how easy it is just topick up the phone. pick up the phone, make thatphone call, call your doctor, go on in. most of it is covered byinsurance anyway, so especially when you're 50, you need to beable to do that. when you have patients outthere, sarah, tell me a little

bit more about how you helpthose patients? >> we have so many differentways that the american cancer society helps patients. one is our road to recoveryprogram, which transportation can really be a deterrent topeople getting good care because they either don't have friendsor family that are available to transport them. they may try to transportthemselves, but realize that they don't feel well enough todo that.

so our road to recovery programmatches volunteers with cancer patients going throughtreatment, and the volunteers donate their time and theirpassenger seat, and they drive the patients to and from theirtreatments, because treatment is critical to being able toovercome. >> and prevention. >> boerner: and prevention. >> i keep saying that, becausethese things are all so treatable once you get ahead ofthe curve.

it's just when you allow it tolapse for so long, that's where the problems become. and the awareness that you do,like the "80 for 2018," yes. those are all part of theawareness. >> boerner: there are some otherthings that we do that i think a lot of people might notknow about. we also have a lodging program,so if a patient needs to travel to their treatment, but let'ssay they live in sedona, and they need to come to phoenix fortheir treatment, we have

partnered with hundreds ofhotels across the country, and we have a very strongpartnership with extended stay america, and we provide freelodging to the patient and their caregiver while they'reundergoing treatment. >> that's beautiful. i had no idea that you did that. >> boerner: and we have anotherlodging program that we're really proud of. it's called hope lodge.

we have 32 of them across thecountry. we have two west of themississippi. one of them is located here inphoenix. it is an amazing place wherepeople can come with their caregivers. they have their own individualrooms with two queen-sized beds, and then the rest of thecommunal living type of situation, kitchen, living room,things like that. but people can come and stay atthe hope lodges for as long as

they need to while they'reundergoing treatment. >> i have to tell you right now,i didn't know that you did that. i knew most of this right here,but i didn't know most of that. that's just beautiful that youdo that for these families. >> like you mentioned earlier,finance, it's expensive, and there are a lot of crazy thingsthat go through people's heads. how am i going to pay for this? what about my job? what about my kids?

so many different things. it's just a way to -->> diciccio: especially the elderly -->> ease the burden. >> -- they're on fixed incomes,they have a hard time, people that have no means, make it evenmore difficult. >> ours is located on the mayocampus, but that doesn't mean that a patient needs to begetting their treatment at mayo. they could be getting theirtreatment anywhere in the valley.

>> tell us verbally, how theycan contact you, and we're going to have it on the bottom of thescreen, but i want to make sure that you also tell us, how dothey get a hold of you? >> one way to get to a hold ofus, and for really important cancer information, is to callour 800 number, which is critical to know. it's 1-800-227-2345,so that's pretty easy. and that location has trainedindividuals there that can answer all different kinds ofquestions, whether it's lodging,

transportation, any of that kindof thing. cancer.org is also a reallyvaluable resource for people who have been diagnosed and they'reup at 2:00 in the morning, and they're like -->> diciccio: worried. >> yes, don't start googlingcrazy things when you hear those words. >> diciccio: pick up the phoneor call the american cancer society. >> here locally, i can bereached at 602-952-7511.

and that's here at the phoenixoffice, which is located basically tatum and bell. >> diciccio: then lisa, is thatthe same contact for you? >> for those organizations thatwould be interested in participating in "80 by 2018,"and signing the pledge and really helping me fight thisfight, and helping the american cancer society fight this fight,i can be reached at 602-778-7674. >> thank you so much.

ladies, thank you so much. i've told you that you're theangels of our community. a lot of other non-profits thatare out there that do all this heavy lifting for everybody. >> thank you, and thank you forhelping us spread the word, because there's a lot about acsthat people don't know. >> diciccio: and i know we'regoing to be doing a test that lisa got me into. so we'll talk about that atanother time.

going to have me do one of thosecolorectal tests. i guess we'll do something withthat. thank you for being on here. thanks so much. and thank you for listening inand watching another "on the issues" program. i told you it was going to be arocking program. it is. in one respect, we talked abouthow you can protect your

finances on that property tax,and then the other part of it, how you can protect your body,and why it's important that you take care of yourself. thank you for listening in. this is sal diciccio, phoenixcity councilman, district 6. closed caption productionsccproductions.com844-335-0911