A nurse friend has been dx'd with a serious disease. She's been out of work for several months and is nearly out of vacation, holiday, and sick time. She can probably go back at least part-time, which is good, because she will lose her med coverage is she doesn't work enough hours each month.
Without working, she won't be able to afford to pay the premiums herself via COBRA and disability takes sooo long to kick in.
Here's someone who has worked all her life, raised a family, been a responsible and hard worker, taking care of other people, who stands a terrifyingly good chance of becoming insurance-less. Yes, I guess she has some savings but not all that much.
What is a person in this spot supposed to do?
She already lives with her grown child, who has been helping her while she's been convalescing. She pays the child rent and has some other ongoing expenses, such as food and car upkeep, maybe helps with utilities - but no debt, thank God.
If she had kidney failure, she could get Medicaid or Medicare. If she were a veteran, she could go to the VA. But because she doesn't have the "right" illness and because she was not in the military, she could, potentially, be thrown out in the dust, I guess.
Seriously, what happens to people who face this terrible situation? I am so angry about it, so frustrated, very scared. I guess it happens to crime and accident victims, too - they are hurt by someone else then left to just fend for themselves as best they can?
Please share any words of wisdom.:angryfire:uhoh3::uhoh21:
Why didn't he take the COBRA coverage when switching between jobs? Are they any assets by the driver that him he could go after?
When my son (age 26) was in a MVA on Jan 22 this year, he broke BOTH hips requiring 3 weeks in the hospital and 3 major surgeries. The accident was not his fault, the other driver did not have insurance. We had to get a lawyer to get the auto insurance to pay what little they did (this took many months). Derek did not have medical insurance because he had just changed jobs a month before the accident and the insurance had not kicked in yet.
The hospital literally brought him to my house (his house is 4 houses down from mine but he could not care for himself so he had to come live with me) in a ambulance with NO rehab. because he has no insurance. He does not qualify for any gov. help unless he has a minor child (they kept asking us if he had a child, they told us he would get help if he had a child).
He spent the next 4 months in a hospital bed in my house with me (I do mother/baby not ortho tho I have learned!) asking nurses at work what exercises he needed to be doing so he could walk again. I had to leave him home alone at night so I could go to work. His doctor that did the surgeries did have a charity clinic so he could be seen once a month and those visits and x-rays were just added to the hospital bill that thank god was all but a few thousand written off to charity. I have no idea what would have happened to him if I had not taken him into my home. The hospital told me they would have taken him to his house and put him in his bed and left him!! He was bedridden for 5 months. I had to rent a hospital bed, wheelchair. I bought a walker, bsc. and canes.
He still owes thousands to other doctors, labs, etc. that will take years to pay off. Total cost was more than $300,000 and that was without any rehab.
He will need total hip replacements every 15 years, he walks with a bad limp (yes we thank god he CAN walk), he is still not working because he is having trouble finding a job he can do now.
There has to be a better way. I just don't know what it is. I know our life will never be the same after this year.
I believe there were some hospitals dumping patients, but they are no longer in business since all the free health care they had to give out to illegal aliens and other patients who wouldn't pay their health care bills.
I was visiting Montreal in 2001. I had a very severe asthma attack and had to go to a Canadian ER. Unfortunately, not only did I have an asthma attack but also pneumonia. I was admitted to their respiratory ICU. The only insurance I had was Medicare. Funny thing about Medicare, they don't apply one single red cent for any hospitalization outside our country. And I wasn't eligible for Canadian health care coverage. Just before I was discharge, after having spent ten days in their very nice hospital, I meet with a business office representative and explained my fixed income and lack of insurance. She verified that I only had Medicare. And since I was on a day visit, hadn't purchased any insurance for outside the US. They told me they would write me off my bill.
Plattsburg, N.Y. was only 50 miles down the highway. They could have shipped me to the border and asked our customs agents to call 911 for me. But they didn't. Apparently they don't think the same way some of us do. Like me, they apparently believe health care is a right, not a privilege. I am sure that some would feel the same way about those nasty U.S. homeless people, who clog up our ER's and ICU's and don't pay one single dime toward their bills. Maybe we should just dump them back where they belong, on the street. Wait a minute, wasn't there several hospitals in L.A. that did just that?
I worked w/ a CNA in an LTC facility a few years back. The facility did not have any health ins at all for employees.
She got acute apendicitis, and had post op complications. We all gave her money, and gave her our vacation days, but it wasn't enough.
She ended up losing her job, and her apt. An LPN at the facility and his wife took her in.
I was injured on-the-job at this facility. They refused to pay my ER bill. Texas does not require employers to carry Workman's comp, so this facility did not carry it.
They refused my bill, and I had to pay it myself to protect my credit rating. I got a lawyer, and he said I had an open and shut case, but that it would cost me between $5,000.-$10,000. to get my employer to pay the $500. ER bill.
I was injured on-the-job at this facility. They refused to pay my ER bill. Texas does not require employers to carry Workman's comp, so this facility did not carry it.
They refused my bill, and I had to pay it myself to protect my credit rating. I got a lawyer, and he said I had an open and shut case, but that it would cost me between $5,000.-$10,000. to get my employer to pay the $500. ER bill.
I'm not asking this to be critical - I am genuinely curious. I have never heard of any employer not carrying Worker's Comp. It is my understanding that it is a federal requirement. (I guess I'll have to look that up.) But why would anyone work anywhere that didn't offer Worker's Comp?
I'm not asking this to be critical - I am genuinely curious. I have never heard of any employer not carrying Worker's Comp. It is my understanding that it is a federal requirement. (I guess I'll have to look that up.) But why would anyone work anywhere that didn't offer Worker's Comp?
It is not a federal law. Texas employers are not required to carry Workman's Comp. They can "self insure" and then deny claims and benefits.
Why does anyone work at a place like this? In the part of TX where I live, there is a huge surplus of nurses. It has been this way for years. Nursing jobs are very hard to come by. I would not have believed it myself, unless I experienced it. I moved here from another state, for my husband's job. I came from a state where nursing jobs are plentiful.
When jobs are scarce, employers have the atvantage, and have no incentive to provide benefits, good wages, or reasonable working conditions.
Why didn't he take the COBRA coverage when switching between jobs? Are they any assets by the driver that him he could go after?
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He did not have medical insurance at his other job, that's why he changed jobs, to better himself.
The other driver had no insurance, and was an illegal and as far as we could find out left the state the next day. His car was totaled also, but he didn't get hurt.
:angryfire:uhoh3:
:uhoh21:
CRNA2007
657 Posts
Why didn't he take the COBRA coverage when switching between jobs? Are they any assets by the driver that him he could go after?