What to Do If You Lose Your Health Insurance

Here's a guy, who has been working hard his entire life, was laid off, lost his insurance and couldn't afford to go to see a doctor and didn't think he could afford his blood pressure medication.
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I recently received a phone call from a friend, who was in the hospital because their partner, who was only in his mid 40s, had a stroke. A stroke? He's too young, he doesn't smoke, what happened? My brain was working overtime. Maybe he has an inherited clotting disorder or there was an aneurysm or an AV malformation? Something didn't make sense. The most obvious reason never occurred to me: He had high blood pressure and he had stopped taking his blood pressure medication, because after losing his job, and losing his insurance, he couldn't afford it anymore.

This story is all too common. It's unnecessary. It's tragic on so many levels. Here's a guy, who has been working hard his entire life, was laid off, lost his insurance and couldn't afford to go to see a doctor and didn't think he could afford his blood pressure medication. Now, he may become disabled and unable to work again. He may need to go on Medicaid to qualify for speech and occupational therapy. He may have a hard time finding another job. All because he didn't take his blood pressure medication, because it seemed too expensive.

But his story is important and unfortunate. It's repeated thousands of times every day in our country. I've cared for many people in the same boat. However, there are solutions.

Are my friends kicking themselves? Yes they are, and yet hindsight is 20/20. Here's what could have been done. And this applies to anyone out there reading this. If you lose your insurance and your ability to see your health care providers:

• Get a copy of your records

• Make a list of your medications

• Find a free clinic or a walk-in clinic at CVS, Walmart or any one of the urgent care centers

• Ask the providers there to refill your medications

• If your medication is prohibitively expensive, go online and apply for the patient assistance programs that most pharmaceutical companies have

• Ask your provider for an alternative medication or medications that may be comparable

• Don't stop your medications unless you're being monitored by a licensed health care provider

• No matter how much it seems to cost in the short term, the long term costs are much higher

My friend's partner is slowly regaining his speech. He's walking well and his brain is recovering slowly. He went back on his blood pressure medication. We hope he'll make a full recovery and that we'll all be able to breathe a huge sigh of relief and know that it could have been much, much worse.

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