Thirty-six year old, Christina Applegate has breast cancer and will undergo treatment. She was apparently diagnosed with breast cancer during a regular MRI. She also has family history of cancer; her own mother suffered from breast cancer and cervical cancer.
I felt so sorry for Christina after I read that news. I wondered if she had health insurance or if the insurance companies refused to cover her for cancer.
After all, it was only a little more than a year ago that my daughter got dropped from our family insurance and other insurance companies created a 'trumped up' illness in an effort to refuse her coverage!
The odd thing was that the refusal really blindsided us.
As far as state requirements were concerned, she qualified for their state resident programs. The glitch was that because the for-profit health care provider refused her coverage, by using the trumped up 'medical reason', it meant a number of things.
- She would not be allowed coverage for that illness.
- Her insurance through the state policy was more than double and covered a lot less! (Including the fact that optical and dental would not be covered on the more expensive state policy.)
- She would get put on a 'wait list' for the state program.
or...
- She could "protest" the decision by RELEASING ALL HER MEDICAL DOCUMENTS TO THE INSURANCE COMPANY TO PROVE THEM WRONG!
Yes...every single word in her medical policy would have been scanned by those murder by spreadsheet operatives so that they could find a different reason to turn her down.
(And people claim to be worried about privacy if the government runs our health care?!!!)
At any rate, the reason I'm going into all this is because Christina's situation reminded me of that search for insurance a year ago.
I hope you don't mind reading my story.
Mostly, I was the one looking for the new insurance because we thought we might get family coverage somewhere else.
I made so many discoveries that really caused me into being such a strong advocate of single-payer health care insurance.
It's hard to know where to begin to tell what happened in that search.
I started with the other local insurance companies to see if she could just apply through a different insurance. But you really can't. The first time you get refused, it stays on your record for a number of years!
So in filling out new applications, the question, "HAVE YOU EVER BEEN REFUSED COVERAGE AND WHY?" is standard on all their forms.
Thus you end up with a circular reference, all pointing back to the original trumped up refusal now dodging every form you fill out from then on.
"So what...just leave it off...don't be honest," you might say.
I'd highly recommend against doing that.
Why?
Because your form has now gone into a health industries database where they have the ability to discover if you were refused but didn't admit it.
They have a word for that. Fraud
So here you're stuck with their original lie--some might call that fraud on their part--but in order to prove their fraud you have to let them see your records! (See...I told you it was a circular reference!)
Ok. So here you are revealing to other companies that you got turned down and trying to explain the very simple reason you saw the doctor and why it's not some horrible long-term disease. What do they want?
You guess it. They want proof! Those MEDICAL RECORDS that are suppose to be personal!
You can see they will do anything to get those records.
In the end, you may end up with a pre-existing clause where you can get insurance for all the other diseases, but if you have a possible 'pre-existing illness' they make doubley-sure to protect their own pocket books.
Also, if you refuse to reveal their denial or you do not reveal your visits to the doctor, if you go in for treatment within a year of signing up with their insurance, they will have access to YOUR FULL RECORD when they get the first billing! They will scan that record to see if you've 'committed fraud.'
Now at this point, I'm sure you're wondering what this has to do with Christina Applegate, and I'm getting there.
As my search for medical insurance continued, I ended up filling out applications at a number of place, but this time feeling a lot more hesitant about being turned down, unsure of how much personal information I needed to give out without them later saying I committed fraud, and I also discovered they ask some very invasive questions about family history.
Technically, they're not allowed to give you tests to determine if you have a family history of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, etc...so instead they list HUNDREDS of diseases and symptoms, and you're suppose to reveal if you have it, your mom had it, if you're dad had it, if any other relative had that disease. I even had one company ask about GRANDPARENTS!
From that, they determine if you're a risk and they can refuse you coverage or exclude coverage.
Now if you have a family risk of cancer, do you really think buying health care that excludes that disease is helpful or wise?
If it's illegal to perform tests to determine probability than why are those murder-by-spreadsheet companies allowed to ask those questions and determine probability in that way?
Thus, you can see why Christina Applegate's experience with cancer brought those memories to the foreground for me. It's also a lot closer because I just had to cancel my regular cancer screening because the insurance company we have DROPPED US WRONGLY from coverage DUE TO THEIR OWN CLERICAL ERROR!
I have fixed that situation, and at least verbally they have admitted that it was THEIR ERROR and THEIR computer error that caused us to be dropped. And now I've set up that screening again.
However, I definately feel more worried about the outcome after reading about Christina. And more importantly, I am concerned about the fact that they dropped us for three months, without notifying us, and HAD I not cancelled that screening, well...I can't even speak the unspeakable, but you get the picture. (I feel like I would be cursing myself.)
Our health care industy is nuts! You're suppose to screen to catch early. Knowing a family history is suppose to help you prevent diseases and catch them early.
Instead, the for-profit industries use those life saving measures to save their own money. Christina Applegate may not be in the situation that my family was or that many other people are. However, even so, it highlights another reason why we need single-payer health care in this country!