Orlando activist struggles with a broken health-care system -- Orlando Weekly

[nashville_brook]

http://orlandoweekly.com/news/story.asp?id=13351

Change can't wait
An Orlando activist struggles with a broken health-care system

BY BILLY MANES - ORLANDO WEEKLY

Tamecka Pierce knows the trouble with health care in Florida in a way she never expected to. The 35-year-old single mother of three was diagnosed with lupus in 2007, while she was still employed in a state representative’s office and carrying a Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance card. Even then it wasn’t easy; the constant flare-ups of the autoimmune disease made working difficult, as did the co-payments that went along with them. She found herself dealing with more and more specialists – her lupus led to stage-three kidney disease and inflammation of the eyes – and caught in an impossible web.

“I can’t afford my disease … I have to choose between going to the doctor, filling my prescriptions, and feeding my children, paying my bills and stuff like that,” she says.

Now Pierce is unemployed – although she is an unpaid “chair” of Florida ACORN, the activist group that often serves as a right-wing piñata – and faced with the even worse conundrum of Medicaid. At first, her benefit was paid, but now that she receives unemployment checks, she has to meet a $797 deductible before she’s even considered for reimbursement. Worse, she’s just found out that there are no rheumatologists in Florida who accept Medicaid; her lupus treatment requires a rheumatologist. Pierce is in and out of the hospital, taking chemotherapy for her kidney disease and running out of hope.

...

The numbers don’t lie: The Sunshine State ranks third in the nation in uninsured residents. As of 2007, more than 20 percent of Floridians lacked health insurance – and that was when the economy was humming along nicely. Here in the heart of the Great Recession, with the state’s unemployment topping 10 percent, those numbers keep getting worse: Another 3,500 Floridians lose their health insurance every week. Minorities are particularly hard-hit.

But in the end, this isn’t just about numbers. Nor is it about political gamesmanship. It’s about our societal soul: In the wealthiest country in the history of the world, should Tamecka Pierce or millions like her be denied the coverage they need to survive?

The war

“We don’t have a choice. This is expected,” says Orlando ACORN head organizer Stephanie Porta, taking a break from a phone campaign expected to generate 50,000 calls to Washington, D.C. “There was a big war against health-care reform back in the ’90s. We knew it would happen again.”

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So far, the scare campaign has succeeded brilliantly. The most progressive health-care reform, creating a single-payer system, is not even on the table. Despite overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate and control of the White House, Democrats have been so far unable to congeal around and gain traction on any specific proposal. The health-insurance industry is pumping $1.4 million a day into lobbying Congress. The conservative Blue Dog coalition and moderate Democrats in the Senate are stalling and bending over backwards to accommodate recalcitrant Republicans, which may end up watering down any legislation to the point of futility. Meanwhile, support for reform in the abstract – and President Obama specifically – is falling in polls, an ominous sign for those who see a once-in-a-generation chance to make things better.

more at link...

[alc]

1. Worse, she’s just found out that there are no rheumatologists in Florida who accept Medicaid

That's why it's a mistake to make this an "health insurance reform" instead of a "health care inform". We may all be eligible for great insurance, but it's only great if it is actually accepted. The current house bill does say employer policies must meet certain requirement in 5 years so all policies may be "even" and none are better than others. But I haven't seen where it says doctors can't make you pay their amount then you get reimbursed by the insurance. I imagine there are all sorts of tricks health care providers can play to negate health insurance regulations.

Some people are arguing that it's ok for congress to keep their health care even if it's better than everyone else. I argue that if they have better, then others will also, and the current tiered system will remain and the bottom tier won't be much better off than they are now (as long as the focus is only on insurance and not mandates for doctors, hospitals, pharm, etc).

[nashville_brook]

2. that's exactly right. this woman is between a rock and a hard place, and "insurance reform"

won't help her on either side.

i went thru this in Tennessee back when TennCare started. No one accepts it, and those who do are SHITTY freaking doctors, AND the deductibles are such that you might as well not have any insurance at all.

It's hard enough having one of the "invisible diseases" like Lupus, without the nightmare of not-having insurance (i've dealt with and without insurance with a different autoimmune situation). my heart goes out to this women -- i HOPE the article helps her find a rheumie (who'll consider Medicaid) in Orlando.