Anyone have a personal health care story you want me to leave with Sen. Feinstein?

[Cant trust em]

I'm going to a meeting at her office tomorrow and I want to bring something potent. I'm young and I have health insurance, so if I could use one of you as my proxy, that would be great.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

1. Small business here in SF --

Under 12 employees, the Boss offers health insurance -- he pays almost $5000 a month for Kaiser's cheapest plan.

Our business got hit HARD from the downturn -- a month ago we were each offered the choice of a 10% reduction in our pay or the cancellation of our insurance plan in order to keep the company from folding. Everyone went with the salary reduction. If things do not turn around in the next few months, our health insurance is the next thing to go. And I am seriously fucked. :(

I am one of those who is uninsurable due to preexisiting conditions. And even if I could get insurance, I really couldn't afford anything but the most basic, high deductible/catastrophic plan that did nothng to help me with my health issues on a daily basis.

No American should have to live in fear of not having access to affordable health care. Plain and simple.

[jannyk]

2. Ex- SF Business owner here...

I Owned and operated a business in SF for 15 years - the dot com bust took it down. Hubby worked for one of the big Semiconductor outfits in Silicon Valley and was laid off in the one of the frequent downturns. We now live in the East Bay.

So now, hubby and I are 'retired'(we are 57 & 60,) and on our own as far as so called 'Health Insurance'. Our BC/BS policy costs over $6,000 per year. The deductible is $5,000 per year each. So we have to be out of pocket $11,000 per year for one (or $16,000 for both) before they cover anything at all. And then they only cover 80% and no meds. Absolutely no preventative care, pap smears, mammograms, physicals etc., are covered. Needless to say, we no longer get then done.

We have NO pre-existing conditions and, are actually afraid to see a doctor in the US, in case it is reported to the Insurance company and they cancel us the next time around.

So what do we do? We self medicate with meds bought on our drive down to Baja each year. Aches, Pains and Flu' etc. we just tough out and wait to see if it gets worse - so far we've been lucky, very lucky. But you never know when that luck will run out, and so we keep forking over $6,000+ a year for 'Health Insurance' that we can't afford to use.

Universal Health Care or failing that, a Strong Public Option (where the option is the insured's), are what we must fight for Senator Feinstein. The Insurance companies aren't interested in Health Care, except when they are denying it. We must have Health Care for all - not for profit Insurance Reform.

[EFerrari]

3. What are you looking for?

[Cant trust em]

5. Just a good personal health care story.

I'm young, so I don't really have one. The story about the death of my grandmother, while a tale of ineptitude, doesn't really have political implications.

[Canuckistanian]

4. Here's mine

My wife had a problem walking without pain. She saw her GP, who referred her to an orthopaedic specialist the next week.

The orthopaedic specialist told her she needed a hip replacement. He said they could schedule her for an operation in 2 months. My wife said no. She was a teacher and she wanted to wait until the school year was over. So, she opted to wait for THREE months.

She had her surgery right on schedule, although with some complications which required two more weeks recovery.

We had a nurse visit at home three times a week, to change her dressings, monitor her recovery and teach her how to walk with a cane. Things went fine. The cane went after a month.

Now, she's doing fine with her "Cadillac of artificial hips", as we like to joke.

And oh, I forgot to mention the bill. We had to pay for a rental TV in the hospital. I think it was about $80. Plus my gas money to visit her in the hospital.

Oh, and did I mention that I was Canadian?

[DFW]

6. I posted this earlier, but you can always show it to her:

I was near death, and didn't know it. An alert German cardiologist noticed that I might have
had (and indeed did) have clogged coronary arteries and sent me for emergency stent implants.
A real near-miss situation. Now, although I have had no problem since, my employer can't get
life insurance for me, and our health insurance refused all my treatments here in Germany at
first, even after admitting the bills from the German clinic that saved my life cost a third
of what the same treatment would have cost in the USA (!!!!).

As for Germany, from whence my wife hails (and works, as I am over here most of the time), when
she was diagnosed with cancer, two operations were needed (one month hospitalization), then chemo
for 2 months, then radiation for 6 weeks, and then (how's THIS for full care?) a month's stay
at a rehab spa for breast and thyroid cancer patients, with aquatic exercise, hikes in the woods,
other indoor exercising and baths to build up muscles and massage them, etc. She has been in full
remission ever since the rehab spa released her in November, 2001. German health insurance even
paid for her train fare down to the rehab spa, as we live in the Rheinland, and it was down in
the Black Forest.

Now German taxes are pretty high (compared to the USA), but at least you get something for them,
and they are nowhere near the confiscatory levels of some other European countries. My wife had to
pay a supplement of exactly zero for her cancer treatment, other than what I spent in gas to drive
her to her chemo treatments in Düsseldorf and back.

It may be too late for America to ever restructure its health insurance system to allow for a majority
of its citizens to enjoy coverage like my wife has. It's certainly not too late to wish or dream, though.

[SeattleGirl]

7. Not my story, but a story of something my mom went through.

My mom had MRSA and another lung condition. She got increasingly worse, and her doctor recommended a clinic in Denver (mom lived in Oregon). The doctors where mom lived had done pretty much everything they could think of for her, so they thought the clinic in Denver would help. Initially, the insurance company said yes, they would pay for it. Then, two weeks before mom was supposed to leave, they changed their mind, and said no, we won't pay for it. Tough noogies on you.

Thankfully, my mom had a real kick ass doc. He got on the phone and got the head of the insurance company on the phone, and after some very terse words from him, the company again reversed themselves, and they ended up paying for her treatment there.

I will always be grateful to mom's doctor for going to bat for her (and I know a lot of doctors do that), but really, they shouldn't HAVE to do that. They should be able to spend their time treating and counseling their patients, not doing the desperation samba with some idiotic bean counter at an insurance company.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Two stories from when I was working as a medic in TJ

1.- Older lady used to come to the ER at the Red Cross (a charity hospital) since she could not afford her meds north of the border. Handling her diabetes that way was more than just nuts. We tried to contact social services in SD, to little or no avail. She ended up doing this for two years, and she got the care since she did not want any charity in the US. She had access to care in the US, but could not afford copays or anything like that. This was over 20 years ago. But I still remember this like it was yesterday.

When she died, the family finally came down and talked to us, they did give a donation, but it was a sad story overall. She was a factory worker at the aircraft factory during WW II, she was a teacher, but in her old age her pension was not enough so she felt embarrassed to ask for help from family, or even her church.

2.- We picked up a young man who was run over and was in critical condition. We took him to the trauma bay in an ALS ambulance, he was stabilized and send to the OR. He spent ten days unconscious, we didn't know who he was. When he woke up we found out he was a US Citizen. Through the Consulate we contacted family. To say they were relieved to know he was still among the living is to put it mildly. He had blue cross\ blue shield. We contacted the company. Never mind we were charging them for two weeks of Hospital, including tests, Trauma bay, OR and two rides in an ALS unit, what would run them for two days of ICU. They still refused it, we were not an authorized facility.

Again another one I will never forget.

And yes, I knew that was a problem with our system, which has only gotten worst.

[wickerwoman]

9. I'm youngish (32) and can't get health insurance.

The last time I applied I was denied ostensibly because I have PVCs (extra heartbeats on my EKG). Nobody knows what causes them, I have no symptoms or discomfort from them and they are not linked to any more serious disease or life-threatening condition. There's no known treatment except to drink less caffeine.

Of course, the real reason I was denied health insurance is because both of my parents are diabetics. Type 2 diabetes is a *lifestyle* disease. I don't share the same lifestyle as my parents. I have totally normal blood tests and no symptoms of diabetes but there is a very, very good chance under the current system that I will never get health insurance because of lifestyle choices my relatives made.

A public option is pretty much my only hope of getting health insurance.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Just one correction, diabetes is not JUST a lifestyle disease

the GENETIC component is very strong in the disease, why it RUNS in families.

:banghead:

Not to say that the companies are wrong, but their actuarial information tells them, two parents, take a course in genetics.

Keep doing what you are doing. You MIGHT be able to avoid it.

[wickerwoman]

13. It's not just a lifestyle disease,

but in my parents' cases there are very obvious lifestyle (and other) contributions.

My dad was exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam and one of the results of the exposure is an increased risk of diabetes. He spent the last five years of his "working" life out on service related disability because of diabetes complications and the VA recognized his claim that the diabetes was service related (i.e. "sorry we dumped toxic shit on you but at least we'll pay for all the drugs and surgeries".)

My mom used to eat at McDonalds at least five times a week. She was about 140 pounds overweight, had serious hypertension from all the salt, drank obscene amounts of full sugar cola, etc. Since she's lost the weight and stopped eating crap, her blood sugars have returned to normal and she doesn't need to take any medication for her diabetes.

But no health insurance company is going to sit and read all of that. All they are going to look at is the diagnosis, not any of the mitigating factors. And they don't have any incentive to consider any of it since it's just easier not to insure anyone who has the slightest chance of getting sick.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Ok so your dad got it from chemical exposure

but your mom I am possitive, has a fairly good case of INSULIN resistance. what some call pre-diabetes. She managed to reverse it due to changes, which are commonly recommended to diabetics.

I reduced my med load... but my dad is thin as a rail, and has it. My aunt, had it... their family had the strain of what was called in the old country... sweet pee disease.

Does that mean I am cured? Even if I reach normal BMI \ weight ratio and reduce my meds to zero... no I am not cured. I will still live with the insulin resistance. Oh and the hx of diabetes in the family in my generation is four of us have it... and one was never fat... or had an abnormal BMI or for that matter ate any of the crap.

I am not defending the companies. Just making sure that people understand it is beyond lifestyle, and the exceptions to the rule are people like your dad.

[wickerwoman]

22. She was diagnosed as diabetic by her doctor

He recommended she go on metformin(?) but she decided to try lifestyle changes first. And they've worked very well so far.

I totally agree that there's a strong genetic component pre-disposing people to diabetes but I also think that the prognosis for the disease depends *a lot* on lifestyle choices. My mom will never be "cured" of diabetes but she can avoid a lot of the most horrible side-effects and the most expensive complications which the insurance companies are so skittish about paying for, by controlling her blood sugar well, exercising and keeping her weight down.

The problem is that in the eyes of the private insurance companies all diabetics are created equal when in fact there's a lot that people can do to mitigate against the worst effects of the disease.

I'm fastidious about what I eat, I exercise every day, I have my blood sugar level tested regularly even though I pay out of pocket for it and my tests are all completely normal. I even have low blood pressure. I might still get diabetes because of the genetic component but I don't get any credit for any of the positive things I'm doing when it comes to the private insurance industry. I stand by my assertion that it's unfair to deny coverage to a person because their relatives have a disease with a strong lifestyle component.

That's why we *need* a public option.

[One_Life_To_Give]

11. Sometimes an X-Ray is better than an MRI

I went with the wife thru several MRI's and second opinion. (MA General and Leahy) Wife was so discouraged/upset after the last one that it was three years of living in pain before I got her to another back specialist. Who after reviewing the case and examining her wasn't sure he could do much but was willing to try. And ordered an X-Ray with her standing up, which was done right there at the office. Well it only took one look at the X-Ray for him to see the problem. Had an appointment with the Surgeon before we left the office.

[XemaSab]

12. I have asthma

When I lost my job last year, the COBRA cost was going to be $600 a month. I didn't do it because it was so expensive, so now I am paying $255 a month for my asthma meds. This is over half of what I get from unemployment. x(

[stranger81]

15. Please use me.

My parent both died while uninsured, five years apart. My mother died from pneumonia in 2003. My parents had to drop their COBRA after my dad got laid off in 2002, as it was too expensive. Since they had no insurance at the time, mom did not go to the doctor or the hospital, for fear of the massive bill it would create. She died of an illness that would have been easily treated had she been able to get basic health care.

My father spent his entire career -- more than 35 years -- doing prostate cancer research for a non-profit research foundation. His mistake, I guess, was not working for industry in a more lucrative career. When he had a stroke last October 11, he was uninsured. Tests that were available to diagnose his hypertension and other medical issues were not performed because he was uninsured and we could not pay for them up front. He died three weeks after the stroke, and it took an autopsy to uncover the medical issues that could have been identified and treated had he been insured.

It is a travesty that we live in a country where a person who dedicates his entire life to improving the health of others, at little to no benefit to himself, ends up denied care and dying uninsured. Before his death, dad kept telling me he no longer recognized this country. Now I know why.

I would be eternally grateful if you would share my experience with Sen. Feinstein. She's also my senator (I live in Menlo Park), so I am a constituent.

Thank you.

[stranger81]

16. I should also have said that both mom and dad died far too young.

Mom was 61, Dad had just turned 65.

[Cant trust em]

18. The meeting was earlier this morning and I just got your message.

I'm sorry I couldn't pass it on. If there's another meeting, I'll try to drop it off.

Here is my summary of the event.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6286793

[stranger81]

19. Thanks so much for going to this.

I'm stuck in my cubicle.

[Cant trust em]

20. There's a Barbara Boxer meeting tomorrow night at 7 in San Francisco.

[stranger81]

23. Thanks for the heads-up. Barbara might actually show up in person.

Just have to convince hubby to watch the baby for the evening.

[Cant trust em]

24. She's going to be there.

It's a meeting/book signing.

Let me know if you're going to be there and want to meet up. It would be great to meet a DUer in person.

[Vinca]

17. 60 year old woman, cherry picked out of insurance 5 years ago,

now need a hip replacement. Still self supporting, but if we don't get health care soon I'll be forced to beg for disability so I can get Medicaid. It doesn't make sense that I would be forced to go from an earner to a forced non-earner in order to qualify for medical care.

[CreekDog]

21. Jackie Speier told our telephone town hall to ask employers what the "lifetime cap" is

She directed that question to people who say they are happy with their insurance.

Good question.

[loyalkydem]

25. You can

tell her how the insurance companies took my eye sight by saying I had a preexisiting condition.