So given that the Supreme Court is set to take up the case of the Affordable Care Act next week, I thought it poignant to share my family's trials and experiences in the great experiment we call American Healthcare.
My family's trajectory through the American Healthcare system so honestly mirrors the multitude of American's in this country, I often feel like some sort of poster child for everything that is wrong with health care in this nation.
It's going to be long, but I would hope you join me beyond the orange event horizon to the singularity end on a story with why, though maybe imperfect, reform was required in this dysfunctional system we have.
I am going to have to warn you again. This story is going to be expansive. It will cover a time in our life when purchasing a 900 dollar TV on credit only to pay it off the following month was no different than purchasing a bottle of water is to many of you, to where we sit now, struggling with bills, applying for Medicaid, and wondering if the decision to hold onto our home after a bankruptcy was the best of ideas.
Where to begin?....Let's go ahead and start with the previously mentioned 900 dollar TV.
So my wife and I had decided to replace our aging tube television and give it to my parents. We really hadn't decided on model, size, etc... we were just going out 'shopping'. We toured the various big box stores until we landed at one that had a Samsung 52 inch DLP rear projection. I was immediately enamored and impressed with the price. However, being the giant miser I am, instructed my wife that we'll keep looking and maybe come back. However, she pregnant with our first child, lamented my decision vehemently stating that it was the best deal we had found that day. That also with equal frustration, that she was tired of the endless walking. So, putting my inner miser aside for the moment, I put it on my HSBC card knowing full well I'd pay the entire thing off the next month.
And that was our situation at the time. We also had insurance coverage that was affordable. Coverage that covered both myself, my wife, and our future child. Coverage that made sense, coverage that did not nickle and dime us with preventative stuff. You know, messy things like prenatal check ups. The coverage at the time also ensured that when my son was born, we'd walk out of the hospital with under two grand of cost. Given that I had just purchased and paid off a 900 dollar TV....I wasn't worried.
I should have been though.
You see back then, I did not pay attention to things like I do now. I had no idea that the entire economy was destined to proverbially put its own nuts into a vice....you'll forgive my gruffness, this story always brings out the ire in me. So I had no idea that my comfy life was about to be turned head on heels.
It started simple enough. My son's due date was in August. However, my plan renewal for the insurance through my employer is October. Unbeknownst to everyone at my place of employment, my employer changed the policy offerings. My current plan would no longer be available. The only affordable plan offered now cost twice as much as my previous plan....ohh and now we'd be walking out of the hospital with five grand in debt. That is, assuming we had no complications with said pregnancy.
And the wonderful news just continued to stream in, that the same week our gynecologist made the call to let my wife go another week instead of inducing in that last week of August. We begged and explained why it was necessary, but it was to no avail. He would not sign off on it, and kicked our can down the road another week.
But hey...I'm an Irish American dammit. When life presents me lemons, I make effing lemonade. Nose to the grind stone and work harder!
So I figured that if I could pay off our anticipated bill in three months, in accordance with the hospital's demand, I could perhaps (with my then stellar credit) take out a loan and pay it off in six.
The washing machine of life, apparently had not finished its spin cycle yet though.
My son was born on October 10th in the wee hours of the morning. This was after every possible complication short of a c-section requirement. I won't go into the nitty gritty details, but we walked out with my son in hand and nine thousand dollar bill on October 13th.
I was studious my resolve though. I figured if I could structure said loan well enough, I might be able to pay it off in a year. It was with that resolve I approached and applied for a loan through citigroup. My credit at the time assured approval, and I was approved for a loan for ten thousand. Unsecured. 7% interest rate. Sure a missed or late payment would ensure the percentage would balloon to 26% but I had run the numbers hundreds of times. I did the math and knew we could make the payments along top of everything else...even with a small amount to spare.
What I could not predict however, was the economy imploding. Fuel prices soaring, food prices increasing, hell everything blowing up in costs. Our budget was decimated. What once cost me in fuel a few dollars to go to work a day, now was costing me almost 8 dollars a day.
Long story short, it came on blustery March day that I had to make a choice. Pay for diapers, baby food, groceries and my mortgage, or pay this personal loan I had taken out for medical debt.
I called citigroup and tried to reason with them. I made contact well before the due date to inform them I couldn't make a full payment, only partial. I pleaded my case with several people and was continually rebuffed. Pay or suffer the consequences was the message. Looking back on this moment in my life I realize now why this was the case. The banks were suffering from a massive liquidity problem and were trying to squeeze blood from a turnip.
During this tribulation my wife was diagnosed as being bi-polar as well. Thankfully at this moment we were still insured. The medication she needed was classified as a tier two drug. The costs were reasonable, and we continued to sacrifice to make it work. Thankfully my wife was employed as a pre-k teacher at a local daycare. This allowed us to avoid the costs of daycare while still enjoying the benefits of a two income home. Things were still tight, and still we struggled to make that payment to the personal loan. We fought hard, but continually fell behind.
We continued this never ending cycle for another 5 months. Sacrificing and sacrificing to pay the idol bank gods their tribute on the alter of medical care having been used. Every time, reaching out to them to explain and attempting to get some sort of restructuring and continually being rebuffed. Meanwhile my home life suffered. My stress through the roof, the tension in my home so thick you could cut it with a knife.
It became to much. That personal loan had since been sold off to a collection agency that had started proceedings towards garnishment. With costs through the roof and facing the possibility of loosing so much income, I knew then that unless we did something drastic that we would lose our home. A home that we put in 30% sweat equity, a home built with blood sweat and tears, a home intended for our first child, our FIRST home. I had no intentions of moving from something I put so much work into.
I'll steal a quote from Pulp Fiction here.
"The way I looked at it, this home was my birthright. I'd be damned if any damn banks gonna put their greedy green hands on my birthright, so did the one thing left to me, one act I knew could protect that birthright: bankruptcy. A five long year program of chapter 13."
We secured a lawyer with borrowed funds through the family, affirmed on the house and filed on everything else. The trustee set us up on an affordable program. It was tight, just as tight as trying to pay our creditors but there was a major difference. No more letters, no more calls, no more harassment, it was gone...all gone. No more haggling with Peter to try and pay Paul. And we had relief, for about 3 months.
Right at the same time of my enrollment period I opened a letter from the medical group our insurance coverage was through. The letter read, and I am paraphrasing here, that "Due to financial reasons and causes, St Joseph Medical Group despite any coverage from outstanding insurance will only service you for critical life saving care only". Then a double whammy. Our insurance offerings through work changed yet again. Premiums were going to go up by nearly 30%.
We had to make a hard choice, a choice I am quite sure so many Americans out there have made, we did not enroll in my employer coverage because of the inability to afford said coverage. We had trustee payments that were required under the terms of our chapter 13 and taking on said increase would literally break the bank. So we took the gamble, hoping that maybe we could avoid catastrophe during the length of the chapter 13...pick insurance back up once we were out of the program.
Seems the Casino of Life really has the best odds for the house.
We went on without health insurance for some time. We paid the trustee. We paid our mortgage. We made due with having to pay cash only for a doctor visit, and my wife found medication on the lower cost lists that worked....not well mind you...but they worked to some degree.
And then on a cool spring day, I arrived home from work to a fretting wife. My son was limping around the house, complaining of pain near his groin. Inspection showed a very red slightly distended area in his inner front hip area. Had he fallen? No. Had he smacked it some how? No. We were at a loss. Meanwhile as the day progressed his condition worsened. He could no longer walk without pain, and wanted nothing more than to just sleep.
I had worried initially about the costs of an ER visit, as any debt incurred after a chapter 13 filing is yours and yours alone to own. We were without insurance so any hospitalization costs would be the full brunt of ours to bear. However there are times where any of those thoughts just get thrown out the window. That time was looking down at my son in pain. At that moment any possible consequence of a trip to the hospital melted to nothing.
Those who may not be parents reading this may not understand, but when you have children there are times where if it means the life and health of your child you will cross the the got damn river Hades itself for them. There is no mountain you will not shake to its foundation if it means the life of your child, including your own foundations.
So it was with this parental belly fire and concern, that we threw aside all possible outcomes and took our son to the Hospital.
I could write another five pages about my experience at the hospital as a cash pay patient, but that belongs in another diary. Perhaps with our more recent experiences of care under medicaid. Regardless at the end of the night my son was diagnosed with Lymphadenitis. He was immediately hooked up to antibiotics.
We spent five days in the hospital. Two very harrowing ones early on as the initial antibiotic did not help..at all. It was only until they took a sample for culture they found my son had MRSA. Once they broke out the heavy duty drugs, his count levels began to subside and he started to recover finally.
So on a warm day in April, I once again walked out of that same hospital, with my same son, with another ten thousand dollars of debt.
Life if anything, is comically tragic at times.
We knew that we could not pay on this debt. What I mean, is that we could pay but the hospital had a very clear history of moving towards garnishment to get repayments. Sure, we applied for their income programs..however we were always JUST out of reach with the income thresh holds. Apparently holding a solid moderately well paying job is frowned on.
So we did the only thing left to us.....we converted our chapter 13 to a chapter 7.
It's hardly worth exposing about this here. It was a typical bankruptcy motion. Even the trustee during the proceeding seemed disinterested in the things being said and was more interested in just slogging through the case load. We having been near the middle of the day, another 40 or so people and couples waiting their turn to join the ever growing rubber stamp proceedings that peppered our great recession.
Despite having been thrown to the floor...twice. We were determined to make things better. We were able to hold onto the house and worked towards securing our place with the hope that soon, we could afford health coverage again. Then we had a happy accident. A fretful and scary but ultimately happy accident.
You see...without health coverage my wife could not afford the birth control she needed for contraceptive purposes. Because of her bi-polar nature the only birth control that worked for her was prohibitively expensive. That said however, we are a married couple...and we do what married couples do.
....but accidents happen.
So my wife is pregnant. About two months along now. Which brings me close to a conclusion, and my final point on health care reform.
We fretted with no idea what we were going to do. We were without insurance and facing the possibility of another deep debt moment. That was however until my wife looked into applying for medicaid.
You see I had applied earlier in the year for my son under the medicaid for kids program in Indiana. We made about 200 more per month than was allowed for the lowest program entry. However, under current regulation and law in Indiana we are now considered a family of four. Viola! We qualify now for medicaid. Not just for my soon to be born child...but also my son..my wife...and me to some degree.
So I am thankful for these safety nets because I recognize their need. Because now, instead of facing the possibility of future destitution, I look forward to walking out of a hospital on a warm August day with a new child covered, not just during the pregnancy but during their first year, with no more than 25 dollars of debt.
Fri Mar 23, 2012 at 9:24 AM PT: Wow, spotlight. Never would have thought it make it here. Just felt like writing about my experiences last night. Cathartic release to an audience. And I am not the only one with said experiences, and many more went through what I did and came out infinitely more bruised on the other side. I just hope my story cements for people why safety nets and health care is so important.
Thank you Kossacks