It's late 2010 and I'm flat on my butt in ICU with a back fracture and internal injuries. By now the biggest threat had been treated, a fat six-inch needle had sucked out most of the nasty stuff from the right lung. Now it was just pain, nearly intractable pain, the kind that IV narcotics could barely touch. That's when the bedside phone rang. But my boss at the time didn't ask me how I was doing, or even what happened, his concern was I hadn't called in sick through the required phone number, so I was big trouble. I might be fired and thus without health care coming out of ICU.
I was so drugged up events were hazy, but I remembered the sick call line wasn't open, I remembered trying over and over until my battery got low. Finally I texted my supervisor at 2 AM in the morning, as the ER staff was stripping me down and fitting a C-collar for transport to a larger, more capable facility. She had even texted me back a couple of times. Or so I thought. Had it been a hallucination? Join me below.
A few minutes later the phone rang again. This time the same boss stammered, apologetic, there had been a snafu, my desperate ER messages had not been delivered to him, or something. I was still employed, my insurance wasn't going to be cut off. By sheer willpower I returned to work just two days later, mostly out of fear of losing my $11/hr job, and still in immense pain barely blunted by prescription meds. Not longer after that I had to sign a statement, acknowledging that future absences for any reason meant I could be fired, or "fined" any performance or holiday bonuses, and that such behavior was unbecoming an employee of my firm.
That's life in 21st century America for millions of low paid and middle-class people. Some of us may have health insurance now, as long we're healthy. But if we really need to use it, we can lose it through inhumane attendance policies. If we jump that hurdle, the insurance company may simply decided not to pay and dare us to fight them. Who doubts this?
In early 2013 I underwent surgery for a heart attack suffered at work, a short recup time followed, too short, a few weeks later I was forced back after that short recovery period, still practically an invalid, I suffered a major complication. This time I had to fight for benefits tooth and nail, it took weeks to see a dime. And because I starting using my FMLA for the heart issues, which had the terrible timing of starting the clock ticking at the very beginning of this year, I'm now low or out of FMLA time, out of paid time off, and out of sick leave.
Obviously getting another, completely unrelated threat to life, health and job would be bad luck. But that's exactly what happened to me, just like it happens to tens of thousands of people every year. Over the course of the last several weeks, I had bouts of severe exhaustion. At first I just tried taking it easy, but the spells worsened. Expensive out-of-network short-cuts aren't an option on the low wages I make. Appointments had to be made off in the distance, tests had to be conducted and sent back. Finally, after several weeks, my PCP called me in, sat me down, and had one of those grim, face-to-face hand-holding talks you hope you never encounter. She calmly explained I had all the classic signs of a raging case of something serious, probably leukemia, maybe just lymphoma.
I had dutifully contacted my employer every day, but hadn't heard anything back from them through all this. Had I been a senior executive, department head, or even a mid-level manger, would my voicemail and text history be full of well wishes? Would there be a card or two on my bedside signed by dozens of coworkers? Almost certainly. But as a peon, there was nary a peep. Until a couple of weeks ago, when a short, threatening company email from someone I've never met showed up all but accusing me of malingering and stating I better have a diagnosis in the next few days or I would be fired.
After more detailed tests I received the somewhat better news: It's probably not leukemia or lymphoma, or liver cancer or pancreatic cancer or a dozen other things that can kill you horribly. There was evidence of something going on in my right lung, possibly related to the injury that kicked this essay off. But it was healing, the real action was in the detailed blood work. The diagnosis as it stands now: a blood chemistry disorder that comes in various extremes, some of which are bad enough to require aggressive therapy almost on par with treating a marrow cancer. I'm anxiously awaiting further results and referrals to more specialist to find out if that's correct, and if its getting better or worse.
Interesting side note of interest here, my PCP was so freaked out she ordered some comprehensive tests—no surprise huh? She was worried enough that some offsite tests were set up right there in her office during that scary visit with me sitting nervously in her personal office. One of those tests was a scan. The medical assistant called that referral in to the in-network radiology department my insurance carrier uses and by the luck of the draw they had an opening that afternoon, if I could hustle right over there. Which I did.
The next week I got a letter from the insurance company informing me that that scan wasn't authorized after all, and I would be on the hook for the full amount. It's an un-godly sum of money. What's even more nerve-racking is this is the same insurance company that is in charge of my short-term disability claim. The terrible partial pay I'm stuck counting on to keep me from throwing myself on the mercy of the great state of Texas. Not to mention keep me covered while a precise diagnosis emerges and/or a treatment regimen is developed.
It's not as though I strayed out of network. It's not as though I didn't follow doctor's orders and them some, to maximize my chances from past issues. I've worked out and dieted like a monk for almost an entire year. Where, in all that past or present in-network medical drama, would a patient have any reason to suspect something as critical as a same day scan for all kinds of fatal conditions wouldn't be authorized days after it was conducted? I'm in decent physical shape, I'm pretty tough, best of all there is now reason to be more optimistic. But as this missive illustrates, that doesn't matter much, because our employer-sponsored health care system isn't just broken, it is rife with systemic, fatal flaws.
Watching Ted Cruz's macabre McCarthyist stunts, thinking of those kids with cancer and their parents hoping for last ditch experimental treatment, only to be tossed aside for pointless tea party posturing, has been nauseating. Compare Cruz's antics to what a friend of mine overseas wrote me in this comment below. To take back a hijacked wingnut term, can you imagine how liberating it would be, to live in a nation that values the well being of all its citizens?
Our employee-sponsored group health insurance system is mutually exclusive with being sick or injured and, until Obamacare kicks in, viable alternatives are in short supply for the unemployed and the uninsured. Mine is not an isolated example. Check comments below and odds are we'll soon see, this is just another American health-care tale.