INSURANCE DENIED: Iowa woman struggles to pay her medical bills after she was denied health care

[Bluebear]

February 22, 2010

This week, President Obama will announce his version of the Health Care Reform bill, a bill Iowans without health insurance will watch very closely. The Senate's version of the bill would cover people who have been denied because of pre existing conditions.

Deb Robben lives for her three young grandchildren. In December, she was diagnosed with colon cancer. With no health insurance to pay for treatment, she feared she wouldn't live to watch her grandchildren grow.

"What am I going to do? My sister-in-law stepped up to the plate. My family voted yes you need this treatment. It warmed my heart," says Robben.

Deb's chemotherapy is nearly $2,000 dollars a month. Her sister-in-law helps her out, because she has to pay before she receives treatment. She owes much more for the rest of her medical bills.

"She's only two months into chemo and already she's at $50,000. Oh my, what is another four months going to bring," says friend Melissa Gradischnig Nelson.

The whole process has been a nightmare for Deb. With no insurance, she struggled to find a doctor who would perform life saving cancer removing surgery... Deb found a doctor, but doesn't know how she will pay him. She's in the mess because she couldn't get health insurance. Deb is self-employed, and was denied coverage because of cysts in her breasts.

http://www.whotv.com/news/who-story-insurance-denied-022110,0,6010935.story

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. This..is....insanity.....

It has to stop.

It is clear that our government at all levels no longer feels any need to take care of its citizens.

I cannot figure out why people stand for it..

[Bluebear]

2. Do we have to pay the police to come if our lives are in danger?

Taxes pay for protection of the citizenry at large. How can we let this woman die because she was "uninsurable"? And how can people defend treating health care as a big game to see which side "wins" while people are dying? What kind of society is this?

[Gman2]

5. Why yes, yes we do. Increasingly, you pay to have fire or police help.

[liquid diamond]

25. I agree. Something has to give, and I don't think it's going to

be pretty. And to think republicans don't want any kind of reform. They want this situation to stay the same only to gradually become worse. They are fucking traitors.

[indy legend]

3. Unfortunately, they stand for it because they don't care.

Greedy, selfish right wing fucks don't care about anyone but themselves and anything but money.

[dflprincess]

4. There are an awful lot of Democrats standing in the way of meaningful reform as well

As painful as it is to face, we can't just blame the Republicans for this one.

[indy legend]

9. You are right but

A right wing fuck doesn't have to be a republican. I put these bought and paid for whores posing as democrats in the same category.

[wolfgangmo]

21. Didn't you get the memo?

By the time the uninsured figure out they need to complain they are already dying and too busy figuring out how to pay the bills to complain.

[cbdo2007]

6. Even Repubes want to get rid of pre-existing conditions denials.....

so I don't understand why they clump all of this together in the same "Health Care Reform Clusterfuck" bill rather than push through some of this shit separately!! It's easy, just make a bill that says insurance companies can't deny people based on medical history or pre-existing conditions and that's it. Pass it tomorrow!! Thousands of lives would be saved from that piece of legislation alone.

[Spike from MN]

14. But prohibiting the insurance companies from denying coverage based

on medical history and/or pre-existing conditions is rather meaningless unless they put price caps on premiums. Otherwise, the insurance companies will just charge sky-high premiums to anyone they don't want to cover. "Sure, we'll cover you. That will be $8000/mo please." People that couldn't afford the premiums would just go without, much like they do now. Unless, of course, coverage is mandatory in which case they will probably just pay the fine instead. Either way, they still wouldn't have medical coverage.

[dflprincess]

Or they'll quote an "affordable" premium for a policy with an unaffordable deductible

either way they still win.

[dflprincess]

17. Or they'll quote an "affordable" premium for a policy with an unaffordable deductible

either way they still win.

[Spike from MN]

24. Good point.

Obviously, along with price caps on premiums, there would have to be a maximum on the deductible.

[cbdo2007]

22. It isn't meaningless...there's where capitalism takes over....

I know, I know...capitalism is a no-no here...but if insurance companies can't ask about a person's medical history before quoting the premium, it's impossible for them to give the a different rate then they're giving to everyone else. Therefore, their rates will be judged by the *true* market rather than their fictitious market of only healthy people. If rates go up, no one will buy insurance from them, they'll go out of business. They'll have to keep rates low to get customers.

[dflprincess]

26. Capitalism is fine when it isn't uncontrolled

and it isn't a matter of life and death. Health insurance should not be run as a for profit business - there is no justification for having a middle man who contributes nothing to the system involved and making money off of us.

[Spike from MN]

28. "Health insurance should not be run as a for profit business."

Exactly. There is an inherent conflict of interest in the current system whereby huge profits are made not by providing health care but rather by DENYING people health care. Socialize it and get rid of the for-profit arm of the health care industry and costs will drop considerably. Also, by putting the entire population into one huge group, risks would be averaged out which would also bring down costs.

[Spike from MN]

27. Their rates will only go up for the ones they don't want to insure.

They will cherry-pick applicants so they only insure the healthiest people, just like they're doing now. The unlucky ones that have health problems and/or have crappy genes and thus MAY have health problems in the future will be priced out. IOW, it will be just like it is now but with the mandates, those that can't afford insurance will get to pay a fine.

[Bluebear]

29. indeed

[sui generis]

7. that should always have been part of health insurance regulation

which is very different from health care.

If she had had preventative health care or diagnosis at a regular checkup she might have had cheaper treatment options or even different treatment options.

But the insurance companies want to exclude people who actually need insurance from their programs that insure healthy 20-30 somethings who won't ever use even the value of their individual premiums much less a group casualty.

And had she been able to get insurance years ago instead of a cockamamie excuse about her breast cysts, we wouldn't be have gotten the opportunity to discuss a public option AND private insurance reform.

This needed to be public insurance, with private insurers being the option. We needed to claim that healthcare is a shared and limited resource, and therefore the government is within its charter to compete with private industry to provide healthcare (not just insurance coverage) to American citizens.

The real issue with passing real healthcare reform AND certainly with passing health insurance reform is that 1 in 7 corporate tax dollars comes from the health insurance and healthcare industries. The government has a greater interest in maintaining that tax revenue than in the health care interests of its own citizens, so this solution is the crappy bubble gum and bailing wire McGyver fix that we're stuck being told to be grateful for.

:rant:

[DesertFlower]

8. my friend lives in florida.

she does not have a job or health insurance. last may she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer. the florida department of health got her on medicaid. didn't cost her a penny for surgery, radiation, etc.

why can't the iowa department of health do the same?

[Bluebear]

10. This woman is self-employed. She can't give up her job to get Medicaid, how would she live?

[DesertFlower]

11. sorry i didn't read the part where

she is self employed.

[Bluebear]

12. Poor lady is only 51 :(

I just hate it that you have to have money not to die of illness in this world, when the means to keep people alive are there :(

[DesertFlower]

20. it's shameful. nt

[kestrel91316]

15. Small-time self-employed people get shafted in this regard, It's part of how

BIG corporations help to insure that the little guy can't get a foothold and compete against them.

Hard to compete if you're out of business, bankrupt, or dead.

[Bluebear]

16. yet the politicians always crow lower taxes will "help small business"

Lower taxes will help small businesses hire oodles and oodles of people!

They could care less about small businesses, self-employed, or apparently those who are 51 and can't afford cancer treatment!

[kestrel91316]

18. They only care about stayiing on top once they get there, and part of that requires

that they keep anyone else from getting near the top, or climbing out ot the pit at all.

[DesertFlower]

19. exactly. nt

[wolfgangmo]

23. Want to hear ironic?

We run a small medical clinic and because of pre-existing conditions we cannot get coverage for our clinic. As a self employed person I fear what happened to this woman every day for myself, my family, my employees and all of their families as well. IF any of us gets sick, despite that fact that we are a medical clinic, we are all either dead or dead broke.

Until washington and the state legislatures realize that the insurance companies are a jack boot on the neck of main street, we will have no economic recovery.

Until we have some coverage for what is quickly becoming the majority of the country, this country will have no peace.

[PHIMG]

13. Only thing that will end this is Medicare for All.