My health care story is the story of my partner’s sister and her family.
Mary & Dale were a couple in their early 50’s when the nightmare started. Dale worked as a welder, Mary was a stay at home Mom to their 3 kids. The two older boys were out of the house, the youngest was a teenager, still at home.
Dale lost the job which provided the family insurance when the company he worked for went out of business. Over the next five years or so he was only able to find part time and temporary jobs.
Mary got a job and was able to bring in a bit of extra money. But as a person who had been out of the workforce for 25 years, a person with only a high school diploma, it was a minimum wage job with no benefits, at a local fast food place. One of the real advantages to the job was the fact that she could take leftovers home when she was done working. This helped with the grocery bills.
Dale’s health had been poor for years; he suffered from poorly controlled diabetes with the complications that go along with it. While he was employed and able to afford his meds and able to follow a good diet things were relatively stable. After he lost his full time, benefited work, things went down hill in a hurry.
About this same time, Mary found a lump in her breast. She went to her doctor, paid out of pocket to see him, because they had no insurance. Her doctor wanted her to see a surgeon for a biopsy. She was unable to find a surgeon who would see her, with no insurance, and no proof of ability to pay for treatment. So things continue for a while. Part time work, both Dale and Mary get sicker and sicker. The emergency room visits to deal with problems that come with out of control diabetes start. The bills pile up, the jobs are scarcer and the house is lost.
Finally, the "safety net" kicks in with low income housing and Medicaid. Too late, much too late, by the time Mary gets Medicaid and has her biopsy her cancer is at stage 4. Five catastrophically expensive months later (for the taxpayers) Mary is dead and Dale has totally given up any pretense of caring for himself. He moves in with his son and daughter-in-law.
About a year after her grandmother died, Dale and Mary’s granddaughter found her grandfather dead in his bed when she went in to wake him for breakfast. Neither of them lived to see their 60th birthday.