Nine years ago to this very day I almost died.
That is a strange thing to write cause I am one of the more healthy folks you'll ever run into. Not a single broken bone my entire life (and I often like to jump off of/into stuff), got the tonsils, never had Chickenpox. Heck it rare for me to get a cold. I don't grasp what a headache feels like. I mean I feel like a million bucks. Even at 39 I feel like I could run through a brick wall.
Well long story short, I lost my job in the dot.com thing. At the time I lived in DC and my health plan was great. Preferred provider (my choice of doctor). Medical savings account. It was wonderful
I used Cobra for a while but moved back to live with my parents in Illinois, cause even at 31 and a lot of savings I could only live so long in DC while I looked for a job.
Soon I moved my health care plan (at the advice of a "professional") to Fortis. Then in a 36 hour period of time I went from feeling fine to being intubated, cut from one ear to the other, and in the ICU for eight days.
Oh and that is just the start .....
I had a sore throat. No big deal, don't we all from time to time. In my gut something told me things were not right. So that afternoon I went to my local doctor. He said my salivary glands were infected, take these pills and you'll be fine. No big deal.
Then he said the most important thing a person has ever said to me, "if it gets worse, don't come back to me go to the emergency room."
That made no sense at the time and I filed it away.
By the next morning I was having a hard time breathing.
I picked up the phone and dialed 911.
From when I entered the emergency room it was less than 10 minutes until people were cutting off my cloths (I wasn't entirely conscious). I could see, like on TV, people running past me in surgical garb.
Three to four days later I woke up in the ICU, tube down my throat (I was awake much earlier, but they did give me really, really good drugs and those first days are just a blur).
I had a strange, rare virus. Epiglottitis. Basically an infant medical issue (very high death rate) that has somehow jumped to affect adults.
Days later I got out (oh and how I was treated is another story for another time) ....
To be honest that is when the "real" battle started.
Fortis refused to pay!
Right from the start. Not even open to talking with me. They said they never got my enrollment forms or payment. I showed them they had in fact got them and cashed my check the week before I got sick. They then said it was a preexisting condition and they didn't have to cover it.
I gathered, with the help of a lawyer and my primary doctor information that this was not in fact the case.
Then they went into the "lets overwhelm you with document requests" mode. They asked for this or that in ten different ways all the time while I am getting hit 24/7 by the hospital and various other people to pay my bills.
The file I have is more then a foot high, mostly of the same documents I was asked to send again and again.
They were even suck pricks, that three months into this I was a few days late paying my monthly fee, and I got a call telling me if I didn't pay they'd cut off my coverage. I said they already had and then used words I won't even repeat here (I can make Blago look like a cussing rookie).
This went on and on. They kept saying my appeal was being pushing up the chain of command or I had to do this or that. They needed this form. This document. It went on for 11 plus months.
Within 36 hours of them cashing my last check for their plan, I got a certified letter saying they were not in their legal opinion liable for any of my bills.
My credit was in shambles. I openly yelled and cried, wondering how I could have as an adult paid into health care system for 15+ years and literally never use it, but now when I did need it, it wasn't there for me?
I was broke and to be honest broken as a person. I had never not been able to pay my bills in my entire life. To say I felt small would be an understatement.
But there is a happy ending to this story, at least for me (but not for most).
For the second time in this story I have to say I am blessed. My parents are rich, well not Hilton rich, but they got a few bucks. They made me start working when I was 12. Although they paid for my college, work and taking account of your own life was what they taught 24/7.
So asking for help was not easy (in hindsight should have asked sooner).
They knew of the problems, but not nearly all the details. When they did learn of them they took care of it for me. $87,137. If not for them I'd still be paying those bill off I am pretty sure.
This is just one story. A story with pretty much a happy ending.
Many that talk on this topic don't always have such an ended. Just keep this in mind when the issue of health care comes up in the coming weeks, months, and years. IT IS VITAL TO THE FUTURE OF OUR NATION!