I'm mostly a commenter here, not a diarist. I started with a few diaries and comments last summer, then took a hiatus starting in November. The reason was that I was diagnosed with bladder cancer. The symptoms started with more frequent urination, which I thought was just aging prostate. Then I started bleeding into the urine, and it was time to go to the doctor. My urologist scheduled a CAT scan and a systoscopy (a procedure I REALLY wasn't looking forward to). The day I showed up for the systoscopy, he cancelled it, took me over to a monitor and showed my CAT scan. My bladder was mostly filled with three large tumors, leaving little room for urine. He said he could fool around with biopsies, but if it was his bladder, he'd want to be at Ohio State University, under the care of Dr. Kamal Pohar.
The rest of the story is under the orange curlicue.
The treatment I got was first rate. My surgeon arranged for me to be seen by a local oncologist, who was also first rate. I started with chemotherapy from late December through early March. I responded very well to the chemo, no nausea and minimal hair loss. My tumors did not endure the chemo nearly as well, and were largely destroyed, except for the roots of the tumor in the bladder walls. In early May, after clearing the chemo drugs out of my system, my bladder, prostate and nearby lymph nodes were removed. Dr. Pohar is involved in bladder cancer research, and enrolled me in a study he is doing. It's randomized, and I got the enhanced treatment, which meant more lymph nodes removed, for an expected significant reduction in future chances of a return of the cancer. The pathology report found no evidence of cancer outside of the bladder. I had initially been classified as a T4a (Stage IV), which they conveniently didn't tell me. They changed my initial diagnosis to T2b (Stage II), meaning i have a LOT better chance of surviving this. Because there was no cancer outside of the bladder, they built me a "neobladder" out of part of my small intestine. I'm now training the new bladder how to function, and will be for a few more weeks before I can return to work. it can now hold five times what it could when it was first built, and I need to double my capacity again. My follow-on care has been outstanding as well.
And now for the health insurance news. I work for a very small business (7 employees, now up to 9). Health insurance is a MAJOR cost, but the company has decided to keep it because we need it to recruit new employees. Most of the employees have dropped coverage in favor of their spouse's coverage due to cost, so only two of us were still on the policy. Because of our ages and health histories, we pay about the highest possible rates, and get hit with the largest possible increases every year. We're now on a high-deductible policy to save overall costs, although the company rebates the savings in costs to our HSAs.
The bad news is the insurance costs a lot, and because we all own some of the company, the company's portion of insurance costs is considered taxable income. The good news is that our policy year runs from July to July, so I've only had to go through my deductibles once. The company also kept me on salary for two months when I couldn't work, until my long-term disability kicked in. They also diverted some company profits into an account, held by the principal owner's church that reimburses me for medical care that falls outside of the insurance - including my co-pays on the policy until I come back to work. So I've gotten great care, and haven't been clobbered by medical costs either.
My company is too small to be required to buy insurance by the ACA. What I'm interested in the most is things like requiring the insurance companies to pay out 80% or more of their total income. They aren't making a profit on us right now, but our costs are still extremely high. I'm also interested in community rating, and the ability to pool our costs with other small businesses. I wouldn't be upset at all with a single-payer system, or Medicaire for all, since these would also substantially reduce my company's costs.
My company expanded in the past year because we had to, and no, neither of the new hires can replace my skills. My hope is that the ACA will make it easier for us to keep on expanding, pay less for insurance and give us a bit better coverage.
I've been lucky on both the cancer front, and on the insurance front, but I'd love to see other people be as fortunate. I guess that's what makes me a progressive Democrat.