Health Insurance Stories, Pt. 2

Posted on 06/11/2009 at 2:08 pm by Bob Cesca

From a reader without insurance since 2000…

Bob,

I don’t have health insurance, either. I’m a former U.S. foreign service officer, but let my insurance lapse in 1991 when I resigned my commission. Later on, I picked up insurance through a writers group. But in the mid-1990s I got very, very sick, and the HMO, George Washington University, couldn’t diagnose what was wrong. Finally the family doctor insisted I get a liver biopsy, which showed iron overload from hereditary hemochromatosis. If untreated, it’s 100% fatal, but it is quite treatable through regular blood extractions. Anyhow, because the HMO hadn’t diagnosed the illness they refused to pay for treatment. And because treatment, in the early stages, is very expensive, I didn’t want to nor could afford to pay both for treatment and for my insurance that wasn’t doing me any good. So since 2000 I’ve been without health insurance.

Normally I’m pretty healthy, but I’m 53 now, and worry about when things go wrong. Just two weeks ago, for example, I had a terrible cough and finally went to the emergency room of a local hospital. After blood work and x-rays they diagnosed pneumonia. OK, I got treatment, and now I’m starting to feel better. I also got a hospital bill for $1,100, and that’s just for the hospital; I haven’t even gotten the doctor’s bill yet, which I’m sure will be several hundred bucks.

It distresses me to see the availability of all this medical skill and equipment, yet know that without insurance I won’t benefit from much of it.

Well, you know how it is.

I hope Obama doesn’t fudge this one, as he has almost every other controversial issue up until now.

Best,
g.

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  • http://www.osborneink.com Matt Osborne

    I think this letter points out how critical the health care debate is for Obama. The perception of his success or failure in office really boils down to this issue. I think Obama understands that, too — which is why he’s going all-out with the town halls.

  • http://arkytek.blogspot.com/ ∇•B=0  Goddamn Silly Ratfaced Git  ∇•D=ρ

    The corporate overlords will propagandize to maintain their RIGHT TO BE PARASITES. They have already bought congress and will continue to hand out bonuses to those giving the best boot licking.We need to show how the insurance and pharma lobbies are steering the entire discussion in the direction to protect the position of the parasites. Congress does not represent the people, it represents the lobbies.The only proper solution to this is to kick the parasites out of the picture and adopt a single payer system. Any other solution will be a half assed measure that just kicks the problem further down the road.

  • ceu

    This morning on Scarborough, someone (Mika? some congresscritter?) said that the healthcare problem was not a crisis the way the bank situation was and we could take out time in getting it fixed – no rush…we can’t afford to fix it right now what with all the money going to Wall St. & war. There was considerable quoting of Scarborough’s fiscal restraint wisdom from his new book.It’s appalling that these people are unaware of how truly awful the situation is for a huge number of their fellow citizens & taxpayers. They pride themselves on their “informed opinions” yet they have no clue.And it’s terribly sad because their ignorance & laziness has led too many in Congress to feel that there in no urgency in fixing this, which results in people in situations like g’s.Each of us needs to contact our representatives in Congress and demand a single-payer system (or a public option, at the very least) NOW, not next year. Now.

  • Friction Soul

    I was really hoping the Obama campaign would re-purpose their entire website to be a vehicle to contact our Reps, to apply the needed pressure to go ahead and take money from the lobbies but vote as we want you to.Instead it continues to ask for donations. Donations! Just goes to show, as VBO pointed out, that they represent them the corporations.

  • Elizabeth

    g.My sister died of complications of that disease when she was 39. One of my other sisters also has it. Thank goodness we are lucky enough to have health insurance, because as you have said, the regular phlebotomies are costly.I wish you well and hope that this public insurance option is passed asap. People who are sick have enough to worry about.