ARRRRRRRRRRGH

but not until 2014.

I wish you the best until then. Please have hope.

I already have congestive heart failure from this one.

I have 2 options - do an iodine burn of the thyroid, or surgery to remove the thyroid to prevent another storm.

I can't afford either.

You may qualify for reduced rates or a payment plan. Tell your doctors that you need to talk with the hospital about a finance plan.

Here are my choices:
1. Have insurance
2. Make payments on the bill monthly. However, this option requires a 33% down payment of the total bill.
3. Apply for charity. Which I also did with the social worker and was told my social security benefit is too large.

I'm so sorry that you are faced with this.

She is coming home from school tomorrow to come up here and raise some hell. Hopefully, she can work some magic.

She worked for a clinic in Atlanta that works miracles, so if I can get out of this godforsaken hospital, I will transfer my records (sister will, anyway) to Good Samaritan and they can work some miracles for me.

Cross your fingers and hope!

The only way to stop it entirely is surgery to remove the thyroid. Even the iodine burn isn't 100% certain.

Maybe this resource can help in the meantime: http://www.gfcn.org/facts.php

And a .pdf list/map: http://www.gfcn.org/media/PDFs/GFCN-ClinicMap2010.pdf

I'm posting this from the hospital and their server isn't particularly good.

I''ll try it when I get home.

Hypo is the one that requires a prescription such as synthroid or levoxyl.

It nearly killed her. She was in the hospital for 19 days and had to go back a month later to get the thyroid removed. Thank god she had insurance. There is no way she could have afforded it. Just the co-pays and such are kicking her butt now that she is finally back to work.
Removal is the way to go in my book. She had reactions to the other treatments and could not continue that route.

Let your doctors know about your situation and ask about hospital charity choices.

Good luck to you. I wish you well.

It's horrible. If you get too warm, you feel like you're drowning. I simply can't breath. I have a home with 13 stairs I can't climb, so I live in one room and a bath on the main floor. I have a ranch home under contract that this hospital is going to cost me. They put this on my credit report and the deal is doomed.

I just need some time to straighten it out.

Does your employer not provide insurance? Or did you get laid off or something like that?

No one hires seniors. No. One.

I owned my own business before I got too sick to run it.

how it is that people get to the point of being 60 without insurance and needing it while sick.

I'm 58, so I'm aware it can happen. If I lost my job, I'd have trouble buying ins. on my own. But you have to have it, or it's more difficult to get it, if you haven't been covered for a while. So I would try to get some minimal coverage, I guess.

So I was wondering if you haven't had ins. for many years, or if you had it recently and they dropped you, or what happened. If you had your own business, were you able to get ins. at that time?

In any case, the exchanges will be up in the next yr or two, and the subsidies along with them. Sounds like you will qualify for a subsidy. And Medicaid is supposed to be broadened under the ACA. Of course, that is if your state didn't opt out, like mine did (TX).

I get $1309.00 per month do you not get?

Any kind of cheap plan has low limits or doesn't cover anything. It also is a pre-existing condition that would have been excluded in a rider

Millions of people do not have and cannot afford insurance. It usually is not a choice or their fault, which you seem to be implying. Companies don't hire older people -- or give them enough hours to have insurance -- because it is too expensive to carry them on the books because statistically, they will be most like to require the most and most expensive care.

"But you have to have it," <-- Yes, as this case illustrates. I reached a point at which my premiums were more than my mortgage and I still had to come up with money for co-pays and deductibles. Would it have made sense to give up my teeny house to keep my insurance?

She presumably made more than $15K at that time. I assumed she had insurance then, or she would have worked for someone else who would provide insurance, like most do. (I basically work where I work for insurance , like a serf.)

Chill. I'm wondering about these cases I hear about, how it happens that various people end up with no insurance. Or is it a secret?

It's clear she can't afford it NOW. And even if she could, she has a pre-existing condition NOW. I'm not asking about the NOW. I'm asking about how it came to pass that she found herself in this situation.

Next time, take the time to actually READ the post you respond to.

I had insurance until it was priced way out of reach. That, by the way, is part of the reason that older people make less desirable employees. The actuarial charts literally price us out of the marketplace.

The ins. cos. make a bid based on # of claims, amount of claims, # of employees, etc. Now that young women get birth control pill coverage, older women are more health-wise attractive, since the birth control pills add a lot of $ to the cost of hiring younger women. It may not sound like much, but it's every month, every year, year after year, multiplied by most of the young women working somewhere....it amounts to a lot of money.

I am 58. I changed jobs this year. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get a new job, but I got two offers within a month. They weren't GREAT offers, but they were decent.

I'm hanging in there until Medicare kicks in for me....assuming the age eligibility won't be changed (grrrrrr).

Small group insurance was our only option, and the actuarial tables didn't work in our favor as the years passed. I tend to disbelieve that larger companies aren't required to provide a census to their health insurance provider as we were. Admittedly, I have nothing to back that disbelief except my own cynicism.

On edit:

When I complained about the final, impossible rate increase I mentioned that our low claim rate. The answer: "They don't look at that. It's not a consideration." Find an actuary and talk to them. I think your perception of how group insurance works might be altered.

One year they explained to us in pretty good detail how the ins. co. bid process works. It was a year they had to change insurers because our insurer had raised the rates by 29%!

They present bids, based on # of claims, amount of claims, # of employees, etc., in the prior year. When you think about it, that is one good way to guesstimate what the claims for an employer will be in the current year, unless something big has happened (a big layoff or a big hiring spurt).

It may not work that way for small employer group policies. And it certainly isn't that way for individual policies.

My new employer has a few hundred employees. I don't think age matters with the ins. there, either. They have hired, in the last few years, a number of over-40 employees. And a few over-50 employees. The cost of ins. would be felt by my new, smaller employer even more keenly than my prior employer. If age mattered with the cost of that, I doubt they'd be hiring as many older workers as they are.

I will say that a sole proprietor told me that she needed a new receptionist, and the receptionist needed to be young because the ins. would cost too much for a "mature" receptionist. But then she said she got her ins. through her CPA husband's insurance, somehow. That doesn't make sense to me, so maybe she just wanted a young receptionist.

As I got older, the insurance was simply priced out of my reach.

I hear about these sad situations, and I rarely hear the background of it. Since I'm getting older, I was just wondering how that happened to you. Partly so I can try to avoid that myself, and partly to understand how the health ins. field works for everyone.

It sucks that the entire ACA doesn't start in 2013, or you would qualify for that subsidy. Or Medicaid. (But I don't know if GA opted out.)

but I am getting very tired of hearing it said that not a single person over the age of 60 can get a job. I'm 64, and I have gotten several jobs since turning 60. They're not at a professional level, but at entry level for clerical or administrative assistant sort of thing. But really, companies do hire seniors. Yes. They. Do.

Oh, and I have a 70 year old friend who keeps on getting work.

Not in Georgia

in the last year or so?

Look, I know that jobs at the professional level are increasingly difficult to get as you get older. That's nothing new. It's been the case for thirty years or so that I've been paying attention. But there are jobs. Older people really do get hired.

I cannot possibly be the only person in this country to have gotten work at this advanced age. And my friend is even older than I am. Wait. I am now remembering another friend who is my age who has gotten work in recent years. Gosh, I must know the only three people . . . .

I do sympathize with the lousy job situation out there. But I get so tired of the "No one over the age of 50 can possibly get a job" nonsense.

I'm sick, and I'm tired, and I just don't have the energy.

Not every job market is the same. Here in many parts of the South, clerical jobs for women such as the previous poster described are very, very rare. There are so many applicants to these type positions, it is daunting.

Most jobs a 50+ woman can hope to get in this area are in food service, manufacturing or retail - part time, low wage, backbreaking work that sick people cannot and should not do.

It's nice to imagine all the happy sparkly wonderful jobs out there just going begging, but every place is not the same and millions of out of work people will tell this other poster that it IS hard in many places to get hired past a certain age.

It's especially hard for an older person at a professional level to get a job. That I know. But people here act as if not a single person out of the 300 plus million in this country who is over the age of 50 or 60 has been hired in the last few years. Just not true.

To repeat. It's hard, but older people really do get hired.

Now I do fully sympathize with the OP. She has health issues that do keep her out of the workforce.

Do they have health benefits? I know highly qualified professionals who literally worked two jobs for decades. They worked in their profession at a corporation and also had a side business they ran. When they got laid off they continued their own business. The problem is that most companies today hire older professionals as contact workers. This is to avoid paying benefits and taxes.

In the meantime their benefits from their severance package has run out and if they work they can't qualify for things like Medicaid. So any money they make has to go towards out of pocket pay for healthcare.

A vicious cycle and why Obamacare should have been implemented sooner. Of course the members of congress who delayed its implementation have healthcare until they die.

Some people are lucky. Most are not.

good vibes sent your way!!

accept the increased eligibility because for a single person at $1309 per month (or $15,708) you will exceed the 130% x $11,170 or $14,521 which means we go to the subsidized exchange deal which I believe you may come out ok if you can hang on. I think your premiums will be down to about $800ish a year.

I'm not sure how the subsidy works, I don't know if you are expected to come up with the 500+ a month and get a credit.

Now, we have to get you there and I don't know what to do for that off hand with a surgery needed.

Just wanted to tell you that my family and I will keep you in our prayers. We know exactly what you are going through, my mom is a year into recovery from this condition. She gained over 200 lbs of water and was suffering from edema. We took her to the emergency room dec. 31st, actually brought in the new year there. Lol. They couldn't run very many test because of the swelling, they quickly started her on dialysis to get off some of the water. She had kidney, heart, and liver failure. She couldn't breathe because her lungs were filled with fluid. After about a month in they found out she was struggling with hyperthyroid. After removal, things were so much better. She just takes synthroid now, other than that she is fine. Just wanted to tell you, you are not alone and that it get better. I wish you had your cost covered already, makes things so much easier. My mom was insured under my father. The military has insurance called tricare, we just pay the co pays and premiums. I wish you had the same experience we did, the people at the military hospital were so kind and helpful. Did every test imaginable to find out what was going on. I'll be praying that you get the same treatment when your sister raises some hay.

Good wishes to you and yours. This disease is insidious and simply comes out of nowhere.

My lungs, too, are filled with fluid making breathing painful. Without the oxygen this morning, my pulse ox was 80.

I'm glad things went well for your Mom. Sending good wishes to you and yours.

hell's bells.

but why aren't you out pounding the pavement to get one of those great jobs!?!?

You can wheel your O2 tank in there with you to the interview - that'll put you first in line of the three hundred people who also applied for that cush clerical job you can easily get!



please rest as much as you can to help you heal.

I hope someone can help you get the surgery you need

Georgia should be ashamed to treat its citizens this way.

It really is, a matter of 2 weeks and you find yourself in thyroid storm. My mom had no previous medical problems so you are completely right about how insidious it is. Removing the fluid is really the toughest part. They eventually were able to move it around with the dialysis, she was on the breathing machine for about a week just to help. She said it felt like she was drowning. Same pulse issues. Things are much better, thank you for your good wishes. Sending them back your way. Now that you are going to Good Samaritan, I hope that you get the good care you deserve. Best of luck to you.

or expanded Medicaid to begin in January 2014 . Your state may choose to not participate in the Medicaid expansion so that might be a problem for you. It appears from this calculator that you will qualify for significant subsidy for a silver-level plan in the exchange, and your estimated annual insurance premium would be $492 ($41/month). Here is a subsidy calculator: http://healthreform.kff.org/subsidycalculator.aspx Of course there will be a deductible/copays. Still, you can't beat $41/month for a fairly comprehensive insurance plan.

in the Medicaid expansion--I would move to one that does. It is that important.

If I want to live.

that's definitely good news.

Of course, my Republican Governor, former Congressman Nathan Deal, isn't going to participate in the health care exchanges, so I doubt the Medicare expansion is on his ToDo list either.

$41/mo would be heaven! Oh how I pray Deal can give up his pride for just one life.

Sorry I didn't respond earlier. I took a sleeping pill at the hospital because I haven't slept in days. Got some much needed rest.

The federal government will be setting up an exchange for your state. Unless your income would be considered under 133% of the federal poverty level, you would go into either a state or federal exchange, and it appears that your income will slightly exceed the federal poverty level, so you will not be affected by lack of Medicaid expansion in your state. Sending you positive vibes and cyber ((hugs)). Keep the faith, enroll next October, and get that much-needed health plan. A coordinated health plan by a good physician can greatly improve your health.

So, thanks to my daughter's magic, I have been released from the hospital to go to an appointment at Good Samaritan tomorrow afternoon. Not only are they amazing doctors, they know of and use all the available resources to get medical care to the underserved.

But, it is actually funny, because every doctor, nurse and social worker at the hospital did a stint at Good Sam during medical school.

Nice to be home and looking forward to putting myself in the care of the doctors at Good Sam tomorrow.

I do so hope you get the treatment you need quickly. Wishing you the best luck and a swift return to better health.

Have you considered seeking employment?

or a literacy course, whichever applies.

how about MA. It is something to think about.

are refused. I am from Britain and find it shameful that this is supposed to be the wealthiest nation on the planet and millions do not have healthcare. My in-laws, who have cost a fortune in self-inflicted illnesses, think there is nothing wrong with the system and refuse to accept anyone is ever refused healthcare. What the hell is wrong with America? America spends vastly more money on healthcare, but tens of millions don't even have healthcare. That makes no sense. Thank God for Obama. And to those who have turned healthcare into a political battle, they should all be ashamed of themselves.