My health care horror story, like others, involves my entire family. I am the lucky one in that I worked for the federal government and had health insurance when my doctor determined that I should consider retiring on disability. This was after several surgeries due to a severe whiplash injury suffered many years earlier.
Oddly enough, in my case if we had a public option for health insurance, the American taxpayer would have been saving money for the past 6 years since I retired and the next 7 years until I turn 65. You see, my husband and I were both covered under my federal health insurance plan, and when the doctor suggested I retire, we looked into me just quitting my job (if we could get private health insurance), and I would have waited until normal retirement age to begin receiving retirement benefits. Of course, after having had surgery on my cervical spine and on both my shoulders and continuing to have spine issues, we could not find a private company willing to cover me.
So, I retired on disability, at the taxpayer's expense, because I could not get health insurance otherwise.
My older sisters and their health care are the real horror story. Both of my sisters had hysterectomies earlier in their lives; one because of cervical cancer, and one because of uterine cancer. They each had jobs with health insurance coverage until the businesses closed and they were left high and dry. Because of their health histories, private insurance was not available to them, either.
The eldest sister was having some health issues, but was waiting to see a doctor until January of this year when she turned 65 and would be covered by Medicare. At her "welcome to Medicare" checkup, the doctor was alarmed at her blood pressure and wanted to hospitalize her. She refused, but the next day had to go to the hospital because of extreme pain. Turns out she needed her gall bladder out. In fact, it appears she had needed it out for some time. The gall bladder was gangrenous. I can't imagine the pain she must have been suffering.
This same sister was giving herself prescribed pain shots for back and hip pain. She had back surgery last month and is doing well. She cannot believe that she is relatively pain free for the first time in years.
My other sister had been seeing an ENT because she was having trouble breathing. He tried various nose drops with no success and finally told her she needed surgery to remove sinus polyps. Of course, she had to pay cash which was very difficult. After the surgery, she was so excited that she could breathe freely and thought her troubles were over. At the followup visit, the doctor came in the room and seemed visibly shaken. He told her that the polyps were malignant and that she has an extremely rare cancer that begins in the ofactory nerve, spreads to the sinus cavities, into the skull, then to the brain. Hers was stage 3. The doctor was so surprised at the test results, he asked the lab to run them again. In fact, the cancer is so rare, a total of four labs looked at the results and all concurred.
Needless to say, she was stunned, as anyone getting such a diagnosis would be. Not having insurance and facing an uncertain prognosis was extremely upsetting to the entire family. We all began to plan how to help cover the costs of whatever lay ahead.
She underwent a PET scan and we were all relieved to hear the doctor evidently got all the cancer when he took out the polyps and surrounding tissue. We have dodged a bullet for now, but this particular cancer has a high rate of recurrence. My sister will be 63 in September, so she will not be eligible for Medicare for 2 more years.
I cannot believe that my family's story is unique. How can anyone be against a public option so that we can have health care for all? How can anyone not see that this is a moral issue?