raises hand tl;dr: even having insurance isn’t enough to save a life in America. Not because of poor health, but because of lack of care.
Currently in debt to the tune of about $40,000 because of a random cancer diagnosis a few years back. I’d been having random abdominal pain for years. Was classified as part time at work even though I worked enough hours to alllllmost be considered full time, so was uninsured. Been classified that way for most of my adult life. Pain got really bad one day and my now husband dragged me to the ER. Turns out there was a decent-sized tumor in my appendix.
Needed follow-up surgery to remove a hunk of colon and lymph nodes. Here’s where things get interesting. I asked the surgeon to give me some time to get some ducks in a row before putting the diagnosis into the system. I asked work to make me full time so I could have insurance. Denied several times, so husband and I got married so I could join his plan (we worked at the same place, so the insurance still ended up with me... so stupid).
Now, onto dealing with the emergency appendectomy. Was referred to the hospital’s charity. Gave them all of my financials and they told me they had to include my now husband’s income. Tried to explain that it was a debt incurred prior to the marriage, but the lady fired back that we share debt now. Ummm no?
So it turns out that if I had quit my job and not gotten insurance through my husband, not only would I have qualified for the charity, but also the second surgery at a much reduced cost due to no income. I screwed myself by doing what I think was ultimately the responsible thing.
And it gets better... they ended up finding metastasis of the cancer. So now, I’m even MORE of a burden on the system because what could have been a much cheaper fact-finding mission several years ago to remove a tumor that has a ridiculously high survival rate when found early, is now instead a lifelong tumor hunt. We (Doc and I) literally meet once a year to look for tumors to cut out until we can’t anymore.
Oh, and even better than that? The insurance I do have now is only good in my region. CTs ($2500 a pop and needed twice a year) and bloodwork only find large tumors, so completely compromised organs, and this fucker likes to go EVERYWHERE (know someone with one in her brain, another in his eye... gnarly stuff). What I really have to have is a scan that is only available outside of my region, however widely available, so it’s out-of-network to the tune of something like $10,000. Really should have one per year. The front-line treatment is discovery and removal of tumors, however there is a new-ish treatment that literally blows up the cancer cells, no matter the size of the tumor. But, you guessed it, is only available outside of my region. Granted, that treatment is hard on the pancreas, so will eventually be fatal, but definitely buys something like over a decade right now.
Sure, there are medical advancements every single day, but here I am just facing my own mortality because the insurance that I actually earn by walking into work is no good to me. There’s an actual treatment out there that I don’t have access to (developed, to my knowledge, and tested in Europe years before FDA approval... take THAT free market shitheads who say public medicine will stifle advancements). I’m like, okay, I just go die now?
There is a silver lining... I decided about six months after the diagnosis and dealing with all of this insurance bullshit that I will live as long and as much as I can. I quit school and took a management gig with steady salary and predictable hours. We travel (I mean, fuck Covid for stealing a precious year from me) a lot. Quality time with family, friends, and pets is much higher quality. I’ve still got probably 10 years left in the bank (fuck me... still hits a bit that I won’t even make 50 years), which is much more than most cancer patients can say with any confidence. Just sucks that I finally joined a shitty 401k at work so I can surprise my husband with money when I do go. Probably the only gift I’ll ever be able to keep a secret.
Sorry so long, and a big thank you to anyone who read the whole thing. I’m usually pretty upbeat about this shitshow.
Fuck the American system — Person who is actually going to die as a result of its amazingness.
SpoiledRaccoon on February 25th, 2021 at 18:05 UTC »
The focus is always on a healthy Mediterranean diet and not on access to healthcare, paid time off and shorter work weeks.
equlalaine on February 25th, 2021 at 19:59 UTC »
raises hand tl;dr: even having insurance isn’t enough to save a life in America. Not because of poor health, but because of lack of care.
Currently in debt to the tune of about $40,000 because of a random cancer diagnosis a few years back. I’d been having random abdominal pain for years. Was classified as part time at work even though I worked enough hours to alllllmost be considered full time, so was uninsured. Been classified that way for most of my adult life. Pain got really bad one day and my now husband dragged me to the ER. Turns out there was a decent-sized tumor in my appendix.
Needed follow-up surgery to remove a hunk of colon and lymph nodes. Here’s where things get interesting. I asked the surgeon to give me some time to get some ducks in a row before putting the diagnosis into the system. I asked work to make me full time so I could have insurance. Denied several times, so husband and I got married so I could join his plan (we worked at the same place, so the insurance still ended up with me... so stupid).
Now, onto dealing with the emergency appendectomy. Was referred to the hospital’s charity. Gave them all of my financials and they told me they had to include my now husband’s income. Tried to explain that it was a debt incurred prior to the marriage, but the lady fired back that we share debt now. Ummm no?
So it turns out that if I had quit my job and not gotten insurance through my husband, not only would I have qualified for the charity, but also the second surgery at a much reduced cost due to no income. I screwed myself by doing what I think was ultimately the responsible thing.
And it gets better... they ended up finding metastasis of the cancer. So now, I’m even MORE of a burden on the system because what could have been a much cheaper fact-finding mission several years ago to remove a tumor that has a ridiculously high survival rate when found early, is now instead a lifelong tumor hunt. We (Doc and I) literally meet once a year to look for tumors to cut out until we can’t anymore.
Oh, and even better than that? The insurance I do have now is only good in my region. CTs ($2500 a pop and needed twice a year) and bloodwork only find large tumors, so completely compromised organs, and this fucker likes to go EVERYWHERE (know someone with one in her brain, another in his eye... gnarly stuff). What I really have to have is a scan that is only available outside of my region, however widely available, so it’s out-of-network to the tune of something like $10,000. Really should have one per year. The front-line treatment is discovery and removal of tumors, however there is a new-ish treatment that literally blows up the cancer cells, no matter the size of the tumor. But, you guessed it, is only available outside of my region. Granted, that treatment is hard on the pancreas, so will eventually be fatal, but definitely buys something like over a decade right now.
Sure, there are medical advancements every single day, but here I am just facing my own mortality because the insurance that I actually earn by walking into work is no good to me. There’s an actual treatment out there that I don’t have access to (developed, to my knowledge, and tested in Europe years before FDA approval... take THAT free market shitheads who say public medicine will stifle advancements). I’m like, okay, I just go die now?
There is a silver lining... I decided about six months after the diagnosis and dealing with all of this insurance bullshit that I will live as long and as much as I can. I quit school and took a management gig with steady salary and predictable hours. We travel (I mean, fuck Covid for stealing a precious year from me) a lot. Quality time with family, friends, and pets is much higher quality. I’ve still got probably 10 years left in the bank (fuck me... still hits a bit that I won’t even make 50 years), which is much more than most cancer patients can say with any confidence. Just sucks that I finally joined a shitty 401k at work so I can surprise my husband with money when I do go. Probably the only gift I’ll ever be able to keep a secret.
Sorry so long, and a big thank you to anyone who read the whole thing. I’m usually pretty upbeat about this shitshow.
Fuck the American system — Person who is actually going to die as a result of its amazingness.
PranavKat on February 25th, 2021 at 20:42 UTC »
Europeans as a whole don't actually live longer than Americans, but Western Europeans do