Sick? No Insurance. No Doctor. You’re screwed. (Part 1)

What’s it like to be ill and be turned away by a doctor? How about needing checkups, medication, scans or mammograms when you can’t find a health care facility to treat you? 

This week, I’d like to take you on a walk in the shoes of those who have no health care. I am one of those huddled masses. I grow weary of hearing Washington give their advice on a topic few of them have experienced. Walk in my shoes for a decade without health care and you can offer an informed opinion.

In light of recent health care reform legislation, I thought I’d give my side of this, or rather that of the estimated 46 million Americans who do not have insurance. I am not a politician. Likewise, I’m not sure America needs my humble opinion how to fix the problem. 

But there is a health care crisis.  And a very real problem exists. I am pretty sure we all agree on some varient of that.

This site, by virtue of its name, is a budgeting spot. Medical bills play an important part in debt management. If you are blessed to have health insurance, this may give you a bit of insight into a topic congress and CNN are force feeding the public.

How did I become uninsured?

About a decade ago, our family business went under. I was in the process of chemo and radiation. When the company died a slow and painful death, it took with it my insurance coverage. (For a better synapse, read the tab here, “Who is Mrs. Bankrupt?”).

Post divorce, based on my child support of $1000.00 a month, and the work I picked up cleaning offices while I went to college, I made too much for Medicaid, and too little for being able to afford insurance. Nearly all the unenlightened told me about the “can’t turn you down” program my state offered. Based on two kinds of cancer, two life threatening blood clots, and a latent heart problem, my “Can’t-Turn-You-Down” premium was $774.00 a month AND covered NO preventative care (like the very scans I needed to track any reoccurrences).

No folks, the insurance company didn’t turn me down, they just made it so that no one but Donald Trump could afford the premium. 

By the way, Medicaid’s income threshold today for a family of two is that you must not exceed $19,378.00.  At that time, and always through this decade, I have been above their guidelines. You’d about have to be just to put a roof over your head and those of your family.

 In other not so nice words, “You’re screwed if you work and want Medicaid.” 

And, if you have any medical history at all, it’s likely you can’t afford the premiums from insurance. 

See the lovely paragraph below, copied straight from Medicaid’s website-

“There are many people who are poor, with incomes below the poverty level, who do not meet Medicaid requirements because they do not fit within the designated eligibility groups.  

  Based on 2009 Federal Poverty Guidelines, a family of two would need an income less than $19, 378 to qualify for Medicaid assistance”. DID YOU CATCH THAT? “THERE ARE MANY POOR PEOPLE WHO DON’T QUALIFY?”

 We have a crisis born of inflated medications, overpriced services and doctors who have been forced to sell their souls in order to practice. 

 

Why didn’t I just get a normal job that offered insurance?

There were numerous reasons. With five small kids still at home, childcare would have eaten up my wages. (At a ten dollar an hour job, I would have netted roughly $360.00. Childcare for five kids in community was around 200.00 plus dollars a week, back then. I was reasonably certain we could not live on $160.00 a week and child support).

Without a degree, and having my only work experience being with a now defunct company, my income prospects were poor.  I started my own office and new construction cleaning service because it allowed me to be with the children much of the time and work flexible hours so I could attend college. Cleaning paid better than any other job I could find at that time. A lot better. 

I was no slug, feeding off the system, folks.

But damn, did I feel it when I had to go to the doctor.  

 Tomorrow and throughout this week, I’d like to talk about what it’s like to not be able to get medical treatment, what it cost me in the way of finances & why I lost a house  over medical bills.

 I want to hear from you this week if you have input on health care. (or lack of it).