It seems somehow that I've often been sort of a cultural poster boy for whatever big economic trends have run through our fine country. I worked in mergers and acquisitions in the heady Gordon Gecko 80s, I rode the dot.com roller coaster from bubble to bust. Now with the great recession supposedly winding down, I found myself finally getting a job on the verge of losing my home to foreclosure. I've decided to do a weekly blog during this next year to chronicle the long crawl out of the hole I've found myself in. Knowing there's lots of people in my same position or often in worse shape.
Last week I did a lighter piece on my garden, but when I started this blog I knew there were some serious issues I'd have to be dealing with. One of them became terribly apparent this past week -- my healthcare situation.
During my stretch of unemployment I had to make a tough decision to go off my meds since I couldn't afford both my COBRA payments and my deductibles. I thought, well it will only be a couple of months, the important thing will be to keep my insurance. I'd heard the warnings about not letting my insurance lapse. Well my unemployment drug on and on, my federal COBRA subsidy ended, and then it ended altogether. There is still a bit of a window there, a grace period that allows you to "bridge" your insurance. This whole period I had several jobs that were "sure things" but for one reason or another fell through. One company was sold, one dissolved and sold off.
In the meantime I almost became one of those statistics. I got deathly ill and had to be rushed from the free clinic directly in an ambulance to the hospital for two weeks of at times touch-and-go treatment. I almost died from a completely preventable disease that is routinely and cheaply kept at bay. I'm just glad it happened when it did, heaven forbid I would have actually gotten a job during that period only to be whisked off to the hospital.
Finally, I got better and finally I got my new job, but there was a critical few weeks of gap in there that I knew would come back to haunt me. I filed for my company insurance, and in a few days was told that since I had had a lapse. Not only would I have to wait a year for any real coverage that would benefit me. That that clock wouldn't even start until September when the open enrollment period started. It turns out that, that last part wasn't really true. I would get insurance immediately, but with no real coverage of pre-existings so no life-saving meds. My one year countdown would start with my start date.
In the mean time I was still on the public dole for a brief period. I would eventually take my weekly paystubs to the clinic to see what we could work out. Turns out not much. I was under the impression that I could maybe still get services with a co-pay on drugs, but that copay is 70%. I also have the option to join the new "bridge" high-risk coverage pool that Obamacare setup. However, that coverage has a 5,000 deductable, and a about $500/month in premiums. I got a job, but I'm certainly not rich. These options are completely out of the question.
I'm told many people just have to quit their jobs to stay on their meds. But what kind of choice is that? I have a good job now, I want to pay my taxes, keep my house. Another option is to continue to look for work, but not only just any job, but a job with a better health plan that covers pre-existings (hard to find, but not totally impossible). Another option is to chug along and keep working and go off my meds again. Then pray against odds that I don't get sick again or die before that coverage clock ticks off.
During all this the few people I've spoken to have been rather frank, "yeah, you're just screwed" healthcare in this country is designed for people with either no money or people with lots of money. Those in-between folks that you, making money, but with those gaps, are just out of luck. I have to imagine though that in the current economy that many people are in exactly my situation.
I was also surprised at the number of people that were surprised that this situation with the preexisting conditions still existed - "didn't Obamacare take care of that?" Well yeah it did, but that doesn't kick in until 2014. Never as three years seemed so long. By the time I wait for those new regulations, and that's providing they don't get overturned or defunded, I'll either be on full insurance again - or just dead.
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Kerry Lauerman
Joan Walsh
Salon.com
Comments
Some of the doctors I see charge $200 plus per visit for people with no insurance. I'd never be able to pay that if I were unemployed and lost my coverage--never mind the prescriptions. I personally know people who have filed for disability because they couldn't get coverage any other way.
Health care in America is a national embarrassment.
You would not believe the people in my reports who just do not take their medications because they cannot afford them, end of story. Sometimes they're elderly, sometimes not. Always they end up back in the emergency room, sometimes being admitted which is hugely expensive to all concerned. It would be much cheaper to give patients access to preventative medications.
I lost my job years ago and I need my medication which is 250.00 without insurance, so I was able to pay for that and got the prescription at a free clinic. when I'm old and debilitated and cannot fend for myself in these situations, do not know what I'll do, die I guess. Maybe I'll get cancer first; I do not get those screenings anymore. I work (for a big company) and have insurance, both pay for very little.
I'd be interested in knowing what your condition is and what medications you are taking for it. Are you aure you need them? Every year we spend billions of dollars on expensive name-brnad drugs for conditions which are better treated with existing generic drugs, or by lifestyle changes, or by not regarding them as problems.
For example, every year we spend billions of dollars on medicine for Type II Diabetes. According to a 2010 report by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, NONE of these medicine has been shown to produce any clinical benefits (e.g., reducing the rate of premature death, or heart attack, or organ failure). And if you think about it, why should anyone expect them to? If the capacity of the adipocytes to take up and use glucose is stretched to the limit, why would anyone think taking a drug that forces the cells to take up even more glucose (and presumably store it as fat) is a good thing? Where does that extra fat go? Perhaps to the heart muscle, the coronary arteries, the liver? Could this explain the increase in heart failure, ischemia, and liver failure some of these drugs have been linked to?
The way to ensure a compliant work force is to saturate people with propaganda that we are all fragile, disease-ridden time bombs who need endless expensive medical interventions all throughout our lives, and then to link health insurance to employment.
Thanks for posting this. Stay well.