If I didn't have health insurance, my husband and daughter would probably be dead.

[hedgehog]

1. When she was about 12, she went out riding her bike and flipped it over. She walked home and lay down on the couch. When she wasn't feeling better in about 15 minutes and complained that her stomach hurt, I loaded her into the car and drove to the ER. She'd speared herself on the handlebars and ruptured her spleen. If I didn't have health insurance, would I have taken her to the hospital that quickly?

2. On a routine exam, the doctor found something that turned out to be prostate cancer. I think it's all gone now, but if the doctor hadn't found the tumor, my husband wouldn't have suspected a thing before it metastasized. He's in his early 50's, so he's in the cohort that dies from this cancer without prompt treatment. If we didn't have health insurance, would he have seen the doctor when nothing was wrong with him?

[wolfgangmo]

1. If you didn't have health insurance you wouldn't have them anymore.

Take a good long, hard look at your family.

And then fight like hell to get single payer.

[truedelphi]

2. +1. n/t

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. +1 nt

[robinlynne]

6. absolutely. quite a way to see things clearly.

[angstlessk]

3. those are really scary questions you ask yourself...write to your paper and ask if anyone

in your community have experienced your same quandary and it resulted in either big bills or worse?

[Xipe Totec]

5. When a co-worker was diagnosed with terminal cancer

my former employer terminated his employment.

Unemployed, he was no longer covered by insurance.

Without insurance, he was left to die a horrible painful death, without so much as morphine to alleviate his pain.

My co-workers were not allowed to donate their sick leave, so that he could continue on the payroll.

Once his sick leave was consumed, he was dismissed without so much as a "we're sorry to have to put you to death".

[Bluzmann57]

7. Your former employer is a corporate piece of shit

You should publicize this tragedy far and wide so that this company gets heaped with shame. Not the employees, just the suits who let this person go because of his cancer. What a bunch of shit.

[Xipe Totec]

9. I hope you won't be disappointed if I don't defend my former piece of shit employer n/t

[Bluzmann57]

13. I should hope you don't defend them

If you believe that's what I said, then you need to reread my post. There really is no defense for that type of behavior.

[Xipe Totec]

15. Rethorical point

of course I agree with you 100%.

:hi:

[noiretextatique]

8. my sister's only hope was a second opinion from the city of hope

after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. the second opinion may not have changed the outcome, but her doctor screwed up and the insurance company dragged its feet. and she kept asking me about it. a few days after she died, the insurance company called authorizing the second opinion. it was all i could do not to curse at the poor clerk who was assigned to make the call. but i did tell her: thanks, but my sister is dead. and if i hadn't been on their asses (the doctors and the insurance companies) the authorization never would have happened.
my sister was made comfortable in hospice care, and she passed away peacefully. i am thankful she had the coverage she did, but if was still a heartbreaking nightmare trying to get it to work the way it is supposed to work.
her birthday is tomorrow. she would be 49 years old O8)

so sorry about your coworker...no one should be forced to die like that.

[AwakeAtLast]

10. God, talk about a death panel

You gotta hope Karma intervened in the case of the employer.

[crazy_vanilla]

11. my husband almost died because of the HMO

They went with the least possible denominator in his case - remove his testicular cancer by surgery, then kick him out the door. No follow up treatments.

Three years later, he ended up in the hospital with 3 tumors in his chest cavity - one the size of a grapefruit! The cancer had metastasized! He spent months in the hospital and had 3 surgeries, including an open-heart type surgery where they cut his sternum so they can access his tumors. The even had to remove one of his ribs in his back and reattach it - again so they can access a tumor. He barely survived.

If the HMO had approved more treatments like chemo and follow up, the second episode plus much pain and suffering could have been avoided.

It drives me mad when people who have always been healthy and/or properly insured talk about "death panels".

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

12. What stage was his cancer?

[mitchum]

14. If I didn't have insurance, I would be dead...

I have already received over $100,000 "worth" of treatment and medication in the past 10 months