That's right folks I won!
Whatever your thoughts are about health care for our indigent population I hope you will join with me and celebrate my victory!
Last August I was turned down for health care from my local hospital district even though I had previously qualified in another county. That event started a 10 month battle where I learned what laws covered health care and determined that my local hospital district was failing to follow the state laws which regulated them.
This week I was informed that the hospital district's board of directors will be changing their policies such that they will be in line with the state laws I identified to them.
They did this after receiving a copy of the lawsuit my legal aide lawyers had prepared and were ready to file.
Full details below the fold.
There won't be any links to this since no news organizations have printed anything about this. The only news organization that even knows anything is my local weekly who will be offered an exclusive before I tell the rest of the world (except my 165,000+ friends here). I am refraining from certain specifics to protect the guilty until I decide how far this can or should be published.
Last August I filed for health care in my home county after I discovered that a program existed that should cover me. My application was rejected because I hadn't included any financial information about my parents, whom I lived with. My first clue that something was wrong with their program was a note on the application which led me to believe I was not required to provide that information since my parents were not responsible for my health care. I had seen this same note in another county where I had received health care. Start the pissed meter at barely.
I set out to prove that the note on the application was enough to show they should have accepted my application and I called the phone line given me in order to present my case before the board of directors. I made this call within 5 minutes of the time I had left their office (this fact would cause my pissed meter to go up a few notches when I pieced together what had to happen in that five minutes). When I called the number I was informed that the boards agenda had been set for August and I would have to wait until September to present my case.
Three weeks later I received a formal letter of denial which seemed strange to me since I didn't leave an application with them. The letter of denial showed that they had used my drivers license, which I was forced to allow them to copy, to perform a background check on me (I'm sure thats a violation of my fifth amendment rights and their first effort at intimidating and preventing the poor from receiving benefits). This pissed me off because, while the application had the usual required signature where I give up my rights as part of the application process, I hadn't actually filed my application. Raise the pissed meter a few more notches.
The denial letter also informed me that the board had removed the note that I was going to argue had shown my application should have been accepted from initially. This fact proved to me that in that five minutes listed in the last paragraph they had added to the boards August agenda their consideration for changing the application and then told me I couldn't appear before the Board because the agenda had already been set. Raise the pissed meter a few more notches.
A couple of days after that I received a phone call from someone in another county threatening to sue me for receiving health care at their facility (where I had lived) since they had received a letter from my home county. Raise the pissed meter a few more notches.
I thought I was out of luck to get health care for myself since the denial letter mentioned above also informed me there was a(n illegal) six month residency requirement in the county prior to being eligible for services. I actually decided I would argue the point about responsibility for health care before the board anyway even though I would not be able to receive care for another 5 months. DailyKos had taught me that a determined activist can achieve impossible things so I decided to fight for others and then in a few months I would become eligible.
I went about researching the law and prepared an oral argument based on the legal requirements concerning responsibility for health care and the the definition of family in the health and safety code. Every time I did research on their multiple reasons for denial I discovered the hospital district was failing to follow the laws concerning providing health care to the poor. Raise the pissed meter a few more notches.
When I finally went before the board they told me they were not prepared to hear any legal arguments without their lawyer present so I would have to wait another month. Raise the pissed meter a few more notches.
I returned again in October and this time I was even better prepared. I was prevented from presenting anything to the board since their lawyer was on vacation. I was allowed two concessions. I was allowed to present a new application for myself since I wanted to put the board on record denying an actual application since I felt I hadn't actually filed an application in August. I was also told that I could prepare a written argument which would be presented to the boards lawyer upon his return. Raise the pissed meter a few more notches.
I went and prepared what would turn out to be an excellent legal argument (my lawyers actual suit in May used every point I had prepared in October). I presented my suit along with my application and waited until the November board meeting. Due to my final research for the written presentation my pissed meter was raised above the half way point.
November came and I headed to my final showdown with the board and their lawyer. When I arrived at their offices I saw two city police officers waiting outside the door which was extremely unusual. After I went inside they delayed the start of the meeting while they called in the Police officers. Raise the pissed meter a few more notches. Once the Officers arrived the boards lawyer informed me that they were there to witness his informing me that if I ever stepped foot on their (public) property I would be charged with trespassing, arrested, and prosecuted. Raise the pissed meter a few more notches into the red zone.
After that I was informed that the board would still not allow me to present a legal argument challenging the boards policies and that they didn't have to follow the laws because they didn't believe the laws applied to them and I would have to get a court order to force them to change their policies. I had a written statement prepared which I gave to the boards lawyer before I left. This blew out the pissed meter, but I kept my cool.
I decided to see if I could get a lawyer and contacted our equivalent of the legal aide service. I presented what I had to the legal aide office and was interviewed by one of their lawyers just before Thanksgiving of last year. Almost like clockwork every month the legal aide people contacted me for a written description of what happened, followed by some wrangling around what issues we would put in the suit if accepted, followed by being accepted and another written description, followed by a consultation call which lasted two hours, followed by a month of quiet, followed by a call saying they were preparing the case, followed finally by my receiving a copy of the proposed filings and another hour long call to review them.
Finally the suit was prepared, we were going to file in court with every point I had suggested.
Start reading if you skipped this far. To boil it down to the basics. I was denied coverage, my fifth amendment rights were violated, I was ignored, I was dismissed without being heard, I was delayed, I was intimidated and I was threatened all because I was trying to persuade elected officials that the law applied to them and that they were failing to follow the law which was established to provide health care to the needy. Their final answer was that they didn't have to follow the law.
I spend the next six months working with some caring and thoughtful lawyers from a federally funded legal aide program. These lawyers have put off the possibility of a lucrative practice to help the needy and they prepared a thorough lawsuit on my behalf.
My lawsuit never had to be filed. Soon after the suit was presented to the lawyer for the board they caved and informed my lawyer that they would change their policies so that they are in line with the legal issues I had raised in my suit.
I won.
Now what do I do. I started this process to obtain health care for myself and others (my county is one of the poorest in my state and I know there are many others who will benefit from this) and it appears I will be able to get coverage but that may not be enough. I could not raise a couple important issues of law with respect to health care for the needy in my suit since those items did not (yet) impact me personally but I know the local program still fails to follow some important provisions of the law. I have also incurred some actual monetary damages which their program would have covered that I need to have cleared up so some bills can be paid.
My personal ultra ethics prevent me from asking for punitive damages or even emotional distress damages which most people would demand. All I want is the health care the law currently provides for, coverage of actual expenses for health care they should have provided me within the last year and a guarantee that I can still file legal action in case their failure to provide me coverage created or creates some other problems that are unknown at this time.
In conclusion I won this round because of my thoughtfully setting up the situation such that I was in the right on every count, I could claim standing, I could prove damages, and I was willing to pursue this case until the end when others in my situation would have been intimidated, would lack the resources required, would lack the knowledge to understand they had been wronged, or would have given up due to how much time and effort this took to achieve. There are few people who are in need of the services that are put in place for them who have my cajones, my resources, and my drive to fight the system when the organizations set up to provide them those services wrongfully refuse them the help they deserve. I hope you take this as an example of how you can help yourself or others when they get into a similar situation.
This is exactly the kind of thing this site can be used for. To give you the hope that you can stand up and change the world through activism and "acts of random kindness."
Yes we can