David Welch is an RN and a patient who was denied health insurance because of minor skin cancer on his nose. This story, of an upper middle class white male nurse, shows how virtually anyone can be denied healthcare, and further illustrates the need for a universal healthcare system such as AB 840 in California and HR 676 nationally.
This video was shot and produced by Colette Washington and edited by James Johnson at JJ Post.
Suppose the value is priceless. However, as individuals in this society prove by their actions ie..smoking, high fat, high cholesterol diets etc, health to some individuals is only good until it interferes with their choices!!! To me that is stupid but my idea that all these people walking around are healthy gets shot down by all the business doctors and pharmicies have.
tax increases or decreases are done by are politician who make sure there pay goes up all the time. Until those guys take a paycut or no increases for 10 yrs, will they know what others go through. Talk about fatcats!
LOS ANGELES, CA--Emily Cannon, is a young woman in the prime of life, the daughter of a registered nurse, and a former elementary school teacher whose life has ground to a halt since developing a chronic but treatable illness. She is being denied treatment by her insurance provider which would fix the problem and enable her to return to the active life she once enjoyed. Watch her story to see yet another example of the growing number of Americans (with insurance) being DENIED the care they need to make them better.
Deamonte Driver, sitting next to his mother, Alyce, shows the scars from incisions for his brain surgery. (By Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post
Twelve-year-old Deamonte Driver died of a toothache Sunday.
A routine, $80 tooth extraction might have saved him.
If his mother had been insured.
If his family had not lost its Medicaid.
If Medicaid dentists weren't so hard to find.
If his mother hadn't been focused on getting a dentist for his brother, who had six rotted teeth.
By the time Deamonte's own aching tooth got any attention, the bacteria from the abscess had spread to his brain, doctors said. After two operations and more than six weeks of hospital care, the Prince George's County boy died.
Deamonte's death and the ultimate cost of his care, which could total more than $250,000, underscore an often-overlooked concern in the debate over universal health coverage: dental care.
Some poor children have no dental coverage at all. Others travel three hours to find a dentist willing to take Medicaid patients and accept the incumbent paperwork. And some, including Deamonte's brother, get in for a tooth cleaning but have trouble securing an oral surgeon to fix deeper problems.
Yes, the current system has many problems. One of the big ones is indicated in this
Others travel three hours to find a dentist willing to take Medicaid patients and accept the incumbent paperwork.
The big problem with Medicaid is not paperwork. It's that Congress saves healthcare dollars by lowering what they pay for procedures.
That doesn't address the root problem of the high cost of healthcare. It doesn't address the costs of running a medical practice. I don't blame docs and dentists who opt to not take medicaid patients. A nursing analogy would be if you showed up and were told for that shift you would be paid minimum wage because the patients were all medicaid. Sure, some nurses would work the shift just as many docs accept fractional payments. I suspect many would balk at working for less than half pay.
BTW, I don't doubt anyone who reports a problem with BCBS. Years ago my wife had intense pain which turned out to be her gallbladder screaming to be set free. BCBS of Oklahoma denied my claim for 3 months because I didn't call to get the surgery pre-approved. I finally wrote the state insurance commissioner and included all correspondence. I had a check the next week. They didn't drop our coverage though, even after paying the claim.
BTW, I don't doubt anyone who reports a problem with BCBS. Years ago my wife had intense pain which turned out to be her gallbladder screaming to be set free. BCBS of Oklahoma denied my claim for 3 months because I didn't call to get the surgery pre-approved. I finally wrote the state insurance commissioner and included all correspondence. I had a check the next week. They didn't drop our coverage though, even after paying the claim.
I'm glad your wife was able to have her surgery. And that you didn't have tp pay for what you already paid for.
Halted health coverage suit may be far-reaching
An appeals court will weigh Blue Shield's retroactive cancellation of a car-crash patient.
A 2001 car accident that left Steven Hailey badly injured was the beginning of his continuing medical and financial calamity.
While Hailey was still recovering in his Cypress home and with medical bills topping $450,000, Blue Shield of California suddenly canceled his coverage. That forced the former self-employed machinist to wait so long for surgery to repair an injured urethra, he says in a lawsuit against Blue Shield, that his bladder stopped working. Since then, he has depended on an implanted catheter that drains his urine into a bag strapped to his body.
Now, Hailey says, he and his wife, Cindy, can't afford the care he needs because Blue Shield began garnisheeing her wages to recoup more than $104,000 it had paid for Steven's medical care before canceling him....
...Blue Shield is one of the state's largest sellers of individual policies, the type of coverage at issue. Unlike with employment-based group coverage, which is issued to all group members regardless of health, carriers in California and some other states are allowed to reject applicants for individual policies based on their medical histories....
He was fifteen when he first developed diabetes and required multiple daily insulin shots. Luckily he had health insurance and received medical care from the specialist at the Children's Hospital.
However when he turned eighteen he lost his health insurance and prescription coverage. He was no longer eligible for Medicaid since his parents both received raises at jobs located outside the state. And this diabetic having recently completed high school started looking for a job himself. But now he had no health insurance and only a minimal income. He knew he couldn't pay his doctor and so he cancelled his next doctor's appointment. When his sugars climbed high, he would give himself more regular insulin.
However, one day when he tried to refill his insulin prescription, the pharmacist told him no because the previous insulin prescription was over six months old. A common situation many Medicaid patients often find themselves in.
Janet Stephens was an RN for 17 years but after being diagnosed with several incurable diseases she went on disability and struggles to cover the cost of her healthcare.
She's a talented pianist and an advocate for Single Payer healthcare reform in America.
rita359
437 Posts
Suppose the value is priceless. However, as individuals in this society prove by their actions ie..smoking, high fat, high cholesterol diets etc, health to some individuals is only good until it interferes with their choices!!! To me that is stupid but my idea that all these people walking around are healthy gets shot down by all the business doctors and pharmicies have.