This Health Care Battle Just Got Personal

I'm for a public option and always have been, and I've advocated and fought for it in the name of all of those millions of people who are uninsured, uninsurable, and/or who have lost their coverage due to having lost their jobs.

Well, my husband, our family's breadwinner, was laid off from his job yesterday after 12 good years of service. Aside from still being in shock and very anxious about our money situation (even good severences don't last forever, especially when you have a family to feed and we were already living paycheck to paycheck), there are the prospects of him trying to find another job in this field (tech) in this terrible job market, and there is, above all, the abject terror that pretty soon we (and our two young children) are going to be without medical insurance because there is no way on this green Earth we will be able to afford COBRA ($1100/mo for all four of us or even the $400/mo for our two kids).

THIS is something we shouldn't have to worry about. Or the fact that given my medical history (autoimmune disorders among other things), I might have trouble qualifying for new coverage when the time comes.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here and I know many of you and people you know have experienced hard times yourself, and I have always counted my blessings, even during the leanest of times. I feel that now this development is coming on the brink of this so-called "recovery," people like my husband and millions of others who are still losing their jobs every day are going to be swept under the rug while the Wall Street Barons commence their victory dances over the richest in this nation getting richer at the expense of dedicated, hard working people like my husband getting squeezed out to help contribute to their company's "record earnings."

I am scared to death of what lay ahead. But I am also livid on behalf of myself and millions of people who should NOT have to fear becoming sick because they don't know where they're going to get the money to pay a doctor, and I am ready to fight even harder.

and I wish that some people on here could understand why that is, and why we fought valiantly to try and get real reform.

I hope things work out for you, and that your story maybe changes a few minds and hearts here and elsewhere.

I've had my own share of wrangling to get my insurance company (Cigna) to pay for a lot of things and have watched year after year as our coverage lessened while our premiums and co-pays skyrocketed to the point where even WITH insurance, we were still wondering if we could afford a trip to the doctor. So it was already personal then. But now it's cutting a whole lot deeper than I ever imagined. :(

We are lucky enough to have gotten SCHIP for the kids, but husband and I have been uninsured since he lost his job. He is self-employed now, but we haven't made anywhere near enough to pay for any health insurance plan on the market. It's galling, for sure. I get up everyday and take care of my children the same way I always have, but one day you have access to medical care, and the next day, you might as well be in a third world country. I have already been told at the low-cost clinic I have no choice but to go to- "well, I would recommend x, y, z, but it's not something you can pay for without insurance." It's unjust.

"losers," I become absolutely livid.

"...not something you can pay for without insurance..." is rapidly becoming 'not something you can pay for With insurance'

Jane Harman, when her son had his coverage dropped

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6767308

Among the other aspects that trouble me is the talk that it may take several years before it kicks in, even if something is passed

People cannot wait several years

Look at the statistics by profession at the Dept. of Labor web site. If he is a professional, the unemployment rate is only 5.2%. Employers want you to think you are at a disadvantage. So does the media.

He's got a lot of experience and is an incredibly likable person (and I'm not just saying this as his obviously biased wife...lol), and I haven't lost optimism that he will be back on his feet in no time. :)

supporters of the Public Option made: not making this personal. With the exception of a handful of very rich people on one side, and of those who can get Medicaid or Medicare, we are all at the mercy of losing one's job or see your premium increase so much you cannot pay them.

This is not a theoretical issue, as some would make us think. It is about real people.

http://www.dice.com/

My husband, a DBA, lost his job two days before Christmas last year. He used the Dice tech employment website and found a very good new job in less than 2 months. He received numerous other offers.

I hope your husband finds a better job, and quickly. And let's hope your health insurance problems are only temporary -- to be solved by real healthcare reform.

Good luck!!!

If there is not a strong public option or single payer, we are all going to get hit real hard by the health care crisis.

Personally, we just found out how much our premiums are going up next year. 80% increase from one year to the next. Of course if we want to take a very hefty deductible $12,000 or higher, we can get a lower premium.

This as the insurance company denies more claims and tells the doctors what drugs they can prescribe. I had prescription denied because they wanted the doctor to prescribe a specific medication, after much debate he agreed, then they denied that saying I could take the over the counter version (not covered) at 1/2 the strength.

I was taking the over the counter medication until it wasn't working anymore so I went to the doctor.

And I know that these are minor things in comparison to what most people are experiencing with health care these days.


It's going to be personal for us all at some point.

People are being squeezed to death here by this crap. Job or no job. Insurance or no insurance. The only people I know who aren't having as hard a time with their health care are those who are on government plans. Either Medicare/Medicaid/VA. And to think that the rest of us shouldn't or wouldn't want that kind of a system.

with diabetes and asthma. Any thing that happens at my husband's company (actually a utility, a power company in CT) makes us both extremely nervous. It is very personal. Good luck to you and your husband.

I feel like we have just been cut free of our anchor and we're just floating adrift. But the sea is not so lonely, it seems. :(

:hug:

I'm not sure what it takes to qualify, but you might want to check this out: http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/cobra.html

I remember reading about this months ago, but I had completely forgotten about it, and it looks like we definitely fit the criteria for this as well.

My day just got a little bit brighter...

She goes without meds she NEEDS because Medicare (and by extension Kaiser) won't pay for it and she cannot afford it. They cost hundreds of dollars a month.

I'm sorry for what you're going through! It's exasperating, I know. And WORRISOME.

I've been denied needed medications (namely Enbrel) by Cigna as well, simply because they were too expensive. It's maddening. What right do they have to stand between people and their doctors??

than ANYWHERE else.

That's one thing. The "doughnut hole" in Medicare needs to be closed.

Mom ended up in Emergency last week because she went for her flu shot and it made her sick. She had NONE of the three meds she takes to breath! Any time she gets ill, the stuff gets into her lungs and bronchial tubes because she has asthma and COPD. TWO of her meds (the ones that worked best) were taken from her a couple months ago due to the doughnut hole. The ONE she has left hadn't been mailed by the stinkin drug company (Merck-Medco) for more than a week after she ordered it. So she had nothing and was sick with flu as a result of the flu shot - and ended up in ER. She called her doc but they told her not to come in because "She didn't have enough symptoms". Her doc works for Kaiser-Permenante - IN THE SAME BUILDING - and gets bonuses each year by taking money from Medicare to provide what care Medicare does/should - but then denying it (ie: by denying care while taking gov't money to provide it!).

The ER doc said that - if she HAD these meds as needed, she would NOT have ended up in Emergency that day. SO - there ya go. If she had been allowed to go to the Dr. - they could have given her an emergency supply of the stuff she needed (heck, a sample or something) - but they REFUSED to see her - she might not have landed in the ER.

The cost of medicines - and the Medicare doughnut hole. And - insurance companies' meddling between patients and doctors.

EXASPERATING!

A month or so ago, Kaiser REFUSED to do a colonoscopy on Mom because of her age (81) - MEDICARE COVERS IT with NO such age limit - DUers looked it up in their own Medicare booklets. But Kaiser REFUSED to do the scope. She is high-risk because she's has had polyps. I guess they just figure if she gets colon cancer, she can drop dead.

So YOU'RE NOT ALONE! :grouphug:

for too many too long... write, call, shout, anything and we all need to keep it up until we don't have to worry everyday

You would have basic health insurance.

so sorry to hear of your troubles. I hope your husband can find good employment.

It is truly scary to live in the USA. I was born there, but came to Canada 40 years ago and would never move back. EVER.

My son and husband were diagnosed with cancers two months apart in 1998. They had the best of care, operations, radiation, chemo, stem cell harvest, medications, home nurse visits, palliative care in the hospital. many MRIs, and CT scans. We all had counseling, as a family and individually... THere were no costs, other than the tv in the hospital room.

I am not a bankrupt widow.

I go to my doctor at the first sign of ill health. I have annual check ups.
Canada is a wonderful caring country and we Canadians would have a revolution if we have to have a health care system like America has.

Nope, I'll take Canada. We all think that we are all in this boat together and we help each other.
Health care insurance is like a "lottery". Only in this one you hope you don't "win". But if yo do you do know you will be taken care, there will be no denial of treatment and you won't go bankrupt.

My mothers side of the family is in Canada and they say the exact same thing you do. It's so important for folks to read your experience if only to understand what it is we will be forced to accept as "insurance reform" once this mess is all said and done. And it will be the product of democratic control of the government.

I wish I had moved to Canada earlier in my life but I'm over 50 and too broke to consider it today. What shocks me most in this country is the willingness of people to allow themselves and their neighbors to be treated like worthless chattel or completely left behind in the name of bipartisanship and centrist pragmatism.

It's good to know some people/countries are not as cruel as us.

And have had a few of my Canadian friends tell me that while there are a lot of things they admire about the U.S., our health care system is definitely not one of them.

Then get the government subsidized COBRA for you and your husband.

Perhaps you know someone that could hire YOU
that will provide health care, even if its
just until your husband finds another job?

I went back to work when my 14 year old was
in 2nd grade, because our home business was
not going well and we needed health insurance
(not to mention paying for the mortgage!).

I'm still working, and my husband is still
slogging along at home. My job became our
main source of income within one year.

We are still waiting for the economy to
"pick-up".....

While his income potential is much higher than mine (since he has more of a marketable skill...I'm a lowly freelance editor/writer), I can definitely be working to bring in easy money while he's conducting his search. We hope that between that, unemployment, and severance, we'll be okay for a few months. And maybe something big will happen between then. I've been working on publishing some of my fiction (things are out in circulation, but MAN it's a hurry up and wait process) and I'm working on finding an agent for my novel. I've had a lot of irons in the fire for myself that way, but now's the time to work on it like I truly mean it, you know? :)

Demand voluntary enrollment in Medicare for all NOW! No waiting to set up a new system--just expand what we have. It could be in place next year.