Legal Loophole Ensnares Breast Cancer Patients

[RamboLiberal]

In June 2003, Shirley Loewe went to Good Shepherd Medical Center here with a softball-size lump in her breast and was diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer. She didn't know it, but she had just made a big mistake.

Ms. Loewe was uninsured. Under federal law, she could have gotten Medicaid coverage -- and saved herself a lot of hardship -- if she'd gone to a different clinic less than a half-mile away. But by walking through Good Shepherd's doors, Ms. Loewe unwittingly let that opportunity slip and embarked on a four-year journey through the Byzantine U.S. health-care system.

It was an odyssey that would take her to five hospitals, two clinics, two charitable organizations and two nursing homes in two states. She was denied assistance or care at least six times along the way, for reasons that ranged from not being poor enough to not being sick enough.

Ms. Loewe eventually got treatment, but at personal cost and great aggravation. To qualify for charity assistance, she had to reduce her $15,000-a-year income as a hairdresser by cutting back on her working hours and giving up her home. Later, she lucked into first-class care thanks to a serendipitous encounter at a Little League game.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118781024289705455.html?mod=googlenews_wsj



I encourage you to read the entire article.

Tell me again stupid selfish Republicans how America has the best health care system! :sarcasm:

[silverojo]

1. My God, what have we become?

Notice how many laws, medical or otherwise, are aimed at denying women their rights...even their right to live?

[KT2000]

2. If she got re-diagnosed

at a "qualifying" facility so she could have gooten care - it would have been fraud!

Looks like something is rotten to the core, and it's not the people who are sick.

[aquart]

3. Goddamn their fucking eyes! Give her the care!

The last thing you need when ill is stress. SOMEBODY sue the insurance companies for deliberately attempting to murder American citizens.

WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF? Osama? Or your HMO?

[uberblonde]

4. As Michael Moore asked, "Who are we?"

Who are we as a nation, that our sick and helpless are turned into impoverished medical nomads?

Shame on the people who perpetuate this toxic system.