"Don't Worry, Be Happy" is the song that often pops up on the playlist at Baldie's Blog, and it's a pretty jarring accompaniment to the heartbreaking and infuriating tale that is unfolding there.
Hillary St. Pierre is the reigning bad-ass baldie in question. She is a relentlessly spunky 27-year-old mother whose life has been ransacked by two different attackers: cancer, and a health care system that doesn't even protect those who have insurance, let alone ones who don't.
I met Hillary when I served as sort of a web research czar for a dear friend who was diagnosed two years ago with lymphoma. My friend is now cancer-free and thriving; Hillary is not. Despite round after round of chemo and two bone marrow transplants that came very close to killing her, the cancer has continued its assault, and appears to have spread to her liver, GI tract and spleen. She is currently on what she calls "Plan Y", which, as you might guess, involves more tortuous treatment. No one wants to be on Plan Y. And no one so gravely ill wants to spend their precious time drowning in bills and fighting with multiple insurance companies. But that's exactly what Hillary is doing, and what President Obama said his late mother was doing in her own fight with cancer.
The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof, in his latest scathing column on the health care uproar, mentions a statistic that's worth repeating here: that 78 percent of the people who had to file for medical-related bankruptcy actually had health insurance. Hillary is a case in point.
When she was diagnosed three years ago, Hillary had health insurance, short and long-term care insurance, and life insurance. Let's first look at her health insurance. In the first year, she says she had a $2500 deductible (she blew past that with a single biopsy), and then began racking up $3600 in co-pays. At some point, she says the insurance company tried to stop covering PET scans, the PET scan being the gold standard for cancer staging. Rather than accumulate unpaid bills, they put the PET scans on credit cards. At another point, her husband, who has Crohn's disease, needed to have 20 inches of his small bowel removed. He should have temporarily stopped working, but that might have meant getting COBRA insurance, with premiums of $1600 each month with a $6000 deductible. His employer let him continue working from a hospital bed, recovering from a bowel resection that required an 8-inch incision. If you can believe it, they were lucky: had they needed COBRA and been unable to pay for it, they risked a lapse in insurance. That would mean potentially falling into the pre-existing condition trap which could have left them both permanently uninsurable.
Next there's her disability insurance. Hillary was a registered nurse when she was diagnosed, and nearly half of her income came from overtime. But disability insurance would only pay according to her base pay. Then, at a perilous moment during Hillary's first bone marrow transplant, the same week her husband was told to plan her funeral, the disability insurer informed them that Hillary had been overpayed and they wanted the money back. Cost: $7452, which also went on credit cards. Recently the insurer once again argued overpayment. Rather than try to fight the company and risk owing them $18,000, she is giving up that $566 a month.
Then there's life insurance. What life insurance? Hillary was dropped 6 months after diagnosis. And none of this accounting includes those ancillary costs of getting really sick, like the cost of travel to and from treatment centers, and the huge expense of child care.
Managing her bills and fighting the insurance companies for what she needs could be a full-time job: she has an Excel spread sheet that's color-coded and runs about twenty-five pages. But she already has a full-time job, you know, trying to stay alive, and it seems as if every other day she has to fight a battle that can affect her health in ways that can't be predicted. One of the latest issues: her insurer requires a prescription mail-order plan to control costs, which, in theory, sounds sensible. But Hillary takes a few dozen different drugs a day, which require constant recalibration. Last week she woke up with bleeding gums that have receded down to the roots, and knew instantly that she might be dangerously anemic. Too bad for Hillary that her folate needs to come through the mail, and not same-day delivery either.
Could you afford catastrophe? Do you think you're insured? Start reading the teeny, tiny print and follow every asterisk on every policy you hold and you might be surprised by the answer. I know I was. There's a reason that every other cancer patient linked to Hillary's page seems to have a 'donate' feature on their page, and it's not because they are grifters. They all had "insurance" too when disaster struck.
Hillary's 6-year-old, Xander, began asking Santa months ago to make his Mommy healthy; that's all he wants for Christmas. It's not clear if Santa will be able to pull that off. Hillary, for her part, has found her cause, and has become a health care reform advocate in her home state of New Hampshire. She implores politicians privately and attends germ-happy town hall meetings, even with chemo and pain that only the strongest narcotics can control. It's her twist on that song that's always playing on her website: don't worry, get angry.
Follow Linda Keenan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/suburgatory
Yet, another reason why the US should wake up and have a National Healthcare Plan.
Yeah, like I really believe the disability insurer. They wanted her off their rolls because she was cutting into their profits, plain and simple. They are all crooks, the primary health insurance companies being the worst.
What's the definition of a conservative who is against health care reform? Answer - someone who has never had to fight their health insurance company.
Best insurance plans at www.aafter.com
In a way you have to be impressed by what Big Pharma and For-Profit Insurance has achieved.
They've managed to poison our politicians and the broader media. They've managed to entangle themselves everywhere.
They even gouge us with their side businesses...
For instance, you pay extra on your home owner's insurance in case somebody gets hurt on your property. Why? Because we don't have universal health care. Somebody has to go after you for their health care.
The same industry sells us both insurance policies! They have us coming and going.
What about Uninsured Motorist coverage. We wouldn't need it with universal health care.... Oh by-the-way, an insurance company sold you that coverage too!
They've dipped into our pockets three times all for the same FEAR! It's BRILLIANT!
I'm sure there are others examples of the insurance industry I haven't thought of.
How about STD and LTD insurance?
It boggles the mind.
and people 'investing' in it. Time was, perhaps, when it might have
been a good thing. Time now isn't. I've never really liked the idea of
betting against myself.
So, from the point of view of someone who believes in health rather
than illness, haven't seen a doctor (except a dentist) in over 20 years,
why doesn't everyone just drop their insurance? Radical?
Sure. But if they're not gonna pay anyway, why keep shoving money
at them as if trying to entice them to pay? That makes no sense.
It's YOUR money!
The idea is, you pay monthly on insurance for a possible catastrophic
illness later on down the road. Got that? "possible illness" and "later
on down the road."
That supposedly 'frees' income for things your want (not need)--now.
The good life, right?
You get ill, then worse.
The insurance company begins denying claims.
How much have you paid out in premiums from the beginning?
How much would be in the bank account had you waited on those
things you thought you really, really wanted back then?
I don't understand paying someone monthly based on a fear that
someone I don't know wanted to sell me, I just don't.
HR676 (http://hr676.org) Single Payer system that is proven, pro-business and pro-people:
* Slashes at least 30% of costs off the top by removing private insurance overhead.
* Companies take health care expenses off their books. Stock value increases. Better able to compete internationally.
* Small companies could have access to higher skilled workers because previously they couldn't compete in the labor market by offering similar benefits.
* More entrepreneurial ventures will launch since they have more money and less unrelated risk.
* Dramatic drop in bankruptcies.
* Dramatic drop in lawsuits. Most of these lawsuits are simply to obtain money to cover health care if something interrupts their coverage.
* Reduced system complexity. Greater efficiency due to fewer regulations.
* Savings from employees not having to fight with their insurers during work hours.
* HSA and MSA dollars redirected back into the economy for goods and services.
* Additional money to spend from not having to carry "uninsured motorist coverage" on your auto policy.
* Contract employment is more viable for workers since they are guaranteed access to health care.
* People are covered when unemployed. No chance of being wiped out financially if you lose your job.
* Health care providers (doctors, hospitals, therapists...) see increase in business with much less administrative expense.
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