A Story From A "Free-Riding" "Health Care Queen"

[The Anti-Bush]

Response to another post on here about how people without health care are treated.

This is my story. True as true can be. And it explains why I have a problem with the universal health insurance plans that are proposed.

I used to work in a casino. I dealt craps for 7 years; and I loved it. One day, I was off work and I went to go pick up a friend from her job because her car had broken down.

I was on my way and I got T-boned by someone in a pickup truck. It was their fault, they just slammed into me from out of nowhere.

I was basically bed ridden for the next 6 months. The only time I got up was to cook a meal, take a shower, go to the washroom, or go to physical therapy.

I had to do my own shopping and everything, but I couldn't even walk through a store without a cart to lean on. Basically, I couldn't do anything other than I listed above. And half of that stuff proved to be an extremely difficult challenge.

I had full health coverage, blue cross blue shield, plus the auto insurance. Well, since I couldn't work, my insurance from work cut me off. I had disability insurance, but it took them 3 months to send me my first check. And I didn't receive another one from them for 6 months after that; and only after I told them I was going to make an attempt to return to work.

My auto insurance covered me for a while, but as soon as the doctor said I was 'BEGINNING' to make some progress, they cut me off, and I couldn't finish my physical therapy.

I tried to return to work, but was unable to because they would not let me until I had a doctor say I could return without any restrictions. I ended up getting evicted from my apartment because I had NO money coming in, and couldn't get a job because of my back.

I had to sell everything I owned, which when you HAVE to do, you don't get nearly what you should for it. I kept doing my physical therapy on my own, since my insurance refused to do the right thing. Eventually, I got to the point where I was about 70%. The doctors told me that I would never get back to normal.

Well, I got desperate, So, I ended up taking training to drive semi trucks. That was a huge mistake, because it required having a "normal" back; which I was not warned about, even after I explained my situation.

I spend all that time, took out a $7000 loan for the training, only to not be able to physically do it.

So here I am, some 4 years later more than $20,000 in debt and still without a job, a car, or health insurance. I was very fortunate to meet someone special who has helped me out, and given me the time to learn a new career that I can actually physically do.

Now, I am sure I left a bunch of stuff out of this, and if you have questions I will gladly answer them. But here is my point.

Universal Health Insurance doesn't solve a damned thing. Insurance companies, all types of insurance companies, do what they want. What good is having insurance if they can refuse treatment?

I had insurance. I had health insurance from work, I had insurance for my car. I had disability insurance. I had insurance for my credit cards.

You know what it did for me? Not a damned thing. We don't need universal health coverage, we need universal health care; where you cannot be told, oh sorry, we're not going to cover that.

Hillary... Barack... You want to give me something? Give me that. Anything less is not Democratic.
Anything less won't work.
Anything less is an insult to every single American.

People do not "not get insurance" because they don't want it. They don't get it because they can't afford it, and when they can afford it, it is only good until you need it.

[Ilsa]

1. Wow. And I suppose the driver of the PU was uninsured and broke

and probably didn't even land in jail.

Yeah, we need universal coverage. My dad just lost his term life insurance policy. They upped the premium on him as he is getting old. He can't pay the increase in premium, so he had to drop it. I don't know if there is anything he can do about a deal like that. What's the point of having insurance if they can hack you off with a moment's notice?

[The Anti-Bush]

3. The cop didn't cite him because he said...

It was a "common" accident in that area. I was in disbelief.

The doctors couldn't tell me what was wrong with my back, so I couldn't get a lawyer to sue.

I put on so much wait from being bed ridden that they said they couldn't read the test results.

In the end they just told me that I was going to have chronic pain for the rest of my life... and to basically just deal with it.

[Ilsa]

6. Oh god. So many strikes against you getting any justice.

It makes no sense whatsoever. And I'm not one to think that this is some sort of "God's will" thing, either. I am so sorry. I suspect the best thing we can all do is work toward getting our Congresscritters and the next Democratic president to see your point from the original post: we need universal health care, not "universal coverage".

[The Anti-Bush]

7. I like to think it worked out in the end.

I mean, when I was growing up I was always very artistic, and now I am doing graphic design and just started learning web design.

So, while it was very difficult, I must agree with you, that it must have been some sort of a "god's will" thing. Everything happens for a reason, right? I even think something good has come out of Dubya being president, but I'm waiting for my post count to refresh.

[TexasObserver]

2. AMEN. Health insurance is a false god. We can't punt this to the insurance industry.

If you need health care, especially for catastrophic, you should get it. The notion that insurance companies should dispense health care from denizens of cubicle is repugnant. The insurance industry will always try to screw their customers. The instant you have a big claim, they're looking to cut you loose. That's what they do. That's all they do. They want to insure people who don't have big claims.

[Leopolds Ghost]

4. K&R

Are Hillary & Edwards fans actually using the "Health Care Queen" libel, I wonder?

(variant of "Welfare Queen")

Wealthy Urban Dems are very familiar with the ethnic makeup of the public hospitals
that handle indigent care... and want those hospitals shut down. They rely on
subconscious stereotypes of "poor people" to fuel their disdain for "free riders"
and hide the truth about the number of people in this country who are struggling,
many of them off the books.

[VenusRising]

5. I am so sorry that happened to you.

I had a similar thing happen to me when I got injured at work. They did not offer insurance to a vast majority of the employees, so I had to depend only on Worker's Compensation, which Bush raided in Texas to give tax cuts to his buddies. So, I had to continually PROVE that I was injured and if I showed any improvement, they cut off the benefits and I would have to appeal the decision by submitting to another doctor visit. It literally drove me insane. I had anxiety attacks for three years after the initial injury and I still have flare-ups from time to time.

You had everything I didn't as far as insurance and disability insurance, but we were both treated the same.

The only thing that saved me was my husband. I thank my lucky stars for him every single day because I wouldn't be here if it weren't for him.


You aren't alone.
:hug:

[Number9Dream]

8. This has been cross-posted at Suburban Guerrilla

Susie Madrak at Suburban Guerrilla found this important enough to share with her readers. We need universal health care, not universal health insurance. John Edwards knew that the insurance companies can't be trusted.

http://susiemadrak.com/2008/02/28/18/37/why-we-need-universal-healthcare-2/

[Recursion]

9. I had a wake-up call when a friend got sick

She was an operatic singer and she developed TMJ and some throat problem that kept her from singing (this is nowhere near as bad as what you went through, but it's just the story I know).

Her insurance company saw that she was insured for the treatment, looked at the cost of the treatment, and simply canceled her policy and returned her premiums for that year. And now nobody will insure her because of her pre-existing condition.

I love Obama's plan to mandate that insurance companies actually cover people.

[area51]

10. k&r

Let's get a 5th rec. for the greatest page, please.

This story needs to be told everywhere. Health insurance != healthcare. We need single-payer so this won't happen to people. It's disgusting how much we pay in taxes and how little we get back from them; there's no excuse for people to be treated like the OP.