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Even with Healthcare Coverage, My Sister Died for Being Poor
Last Wednesday, my only sister was taken to emergency because of difficulty breathing. She's had a history of numerous illnesses ranging from lupus, seizures and osteoporosis but this particular visit was more related to her asthma, or so she thought. After being seen by the physician it was determined that her breathing difficulties were worse than anticipated as she was diagnosed with having a case of pneumonia. Feeling blessed to be able to get immediate medical care Karen was of the ranks of the fortunate known as the insured, meaning that she does in-fact have health care coverage which she acquired after being declared medically disabled after her thirty third seizure.
Yes, it took thirty three seizures, 5 appeals, 4 years and 3 lawyers but Karen Jones was finally declared disabled and was granted full disability which included full health care coverage, far from an easy feat but quite reassuring to Karen as she continued on through life. Unable to work due to her disability, Karen lived alone off of the $563 disability check each month as best she could, regularly robbing Peter to pay Paul, but all along able to make ends meet from check to check, and doing so always with a smile.
Even though times were really harder than Karen lead others to know she was thankful for the roof over her head, her access to medical care when needed, her monthly check and the ability to basically survive, which may be the reason that she developed the characteristic of never asking for help from others regardless of how much she may have needed it at times.
So she didn't like the fact that she had to trouble a neighbor to take her to emergency on Wednesday but she just couldn't breathe well. After the diagnosis that pneumonia was the culprit Karen signed the final papers as her prescription form was being handed to her. "Get this filled, take 4 of these per day and this will clear up your breathing" were the directions given as Karen prepared to go home, wheezing profusely along the way. The neighbor takes her directly to the pharmacy which is where Karen is told that this much needed medication will cost her $197. It's the end of the month, funds are extremely low, and Karen is far from having an extra couple hundred dollars laying around, so she goes home, takes some extra inhales from her breathing machine, and decides to toughen it out until the first of the month, just a few days away, when she'll get her next check and have the money to buy her medicine.
Being a prideful, independent woman Karen continues to tough it out each day never showing to others her true discomfort or need. All day long on Thursday and Friday Karen constantly thinks to herself how much she wishes she had been able to afford to buy the medicine as she does a mental countdown to the first of the month with every inhale through her machine. "I shouldn't have paid the light bill...I should have bought less food" are just a couple of the thoughts that haunt Karen as she figures ways she could have had the much needed money. And on that Friday night as she lay in bed she takes a few extra puffs from her breathing machine to get her through the night.
On the early eve of Saturday morning around 4:30 or so, Karen Jones, my only sister, died, age 51. Apparently, around 4:00 she had severe difficulties breathing, strained to call a neighbor who immediately got dressed and came down to the house, knocked on the door like crazy but there was no answer. Feeling great concern a call was made to the police who quickly arrived, gained access into the house, and there lie Karen, dead on the floor, beside her breathing machine.
Although we all were well aware of Karen's history of sicknesses I never expected my sister to die at such an early age. Of course I am of great sorrow and pain over the loss of my sister but I am also very angry with our health care system. I am angry, no actually in shock by the fact that my sister, Karen was declared to have full health care coverage through her disability benefits. But since it did not cover her medication, which she could not afford to buy out of pocket, my sister died with this so-called full coverage. What kind of full coverage does one really have if they are forced to pay for expensive medications out of their measly $563 monthly check ? I truly believe that if my sister had had her medication she would be alive today. It is absolutely disgraceful that our health care system has the gall to claim they are supplying full health care benefits to the disabled while simultaneous depriving them of the very medicines needed for survival.
Believe it or not, you could say Karen was actually one of the lucky ones only needing one medication compared to others who frequently need 2 and 3 medications, at costs which exceed their entire monthly check. So many who are sick, struggling and classified as fully covered are are in fact struggling helplessly, going without vitally important medications.
Throughout the health care reform debate many have argued that there is no need for strong reform of our system. Most others though do recognize the severe need to reform health care coverage in our country so that we no longer have 47 million Americans who have absolutely no health care at all. 47 million who do not have the basic right to get medical help when they are sick. This is sad and pathetic. Recently, an organization, RAM, known for offering free medical care in the Amazon has been forced to offer their services right here in our country. In Los Angeles, in Iowa and other U.S. locales, hard working Americans who can't afford health care coverage line-up by the thousands for free, much needed health care, similar to scenes in third world countries.
And while we must make certain that health care reform addresses the needs of the uncovered we must also make certain that we address the needs of the category now known as the under-covered. These are the people like my sister who have health care coverage but for one reason or another, tend to find out the hard way, usually when they are sick, that their coverage wasn't as 'full' as they thought.
Of course, it will haunt me forever as to why my sister didn't pick up the phone and ask me for the money, but folks that know her know, that's just Karen. And there are millions of other Karens out there, in desperate need and dire straits, but too independent to ask for much needed help. It is our responsibility, our duty to do everything we can to help the 47 million uncovered and the additional millions of under-covered to have the basic right to true health care coverage.
I hope my sister's passing did not include suffering. And now, even more, I hope that we all across this great land, will unite, do the right thing and pass a strong health reform bill which includes a strong public option so that we can curtail the suffering of millions more ahead. We must fight for the 47 million and the Karen Jones's of America. This is a battle that must be won!
- Posted in
41 Comments so far
Show AllMost people that are afraid to loose their "great" health insurance coverage only think it's "great" because they have never had to REALLY use it. Only then they will find that all the deductibles , co-pays, etc. could leave them bankrupt.
I think a major pandemic that forces millions of Americans to actually use their crap insurance is one of the few things that could force a change to this system. Until then the lies will rule.
We had a relative like that who used to visit us back when Medicare was first socialized up here in Canada. He'd rant for hours about how evil it was that we'd allow the 'commy horde' to force everyone to be covered by health care. Then (in 1970) he had a heart attack, and his family found out just how wonderful the us health care system really was. He died, leaving debts that forced his wife to sell everything and still owe tens of thousands. We never found out what happened to her, I'm sure he died happy knowing that he didn't live in a 'socialist' state...
Incredible story.
There are a lot of under educated people in this country that have no clue (because they really have never researched it) that there are other forms of government that actually work for We The People. There is a little good in all. These are the same knuckleheads that mindlessly vote the way their clergy tells them (to try to fit in and win approval), and/or their family members tell them (peer pressure), or on the basis of how much money they can save by not paying taxes (greed). They are not following Jesus' commandment of "loving thy neighbors." I guess that is what Jesus meant by people being "white washed graves." Painted bright white on the outside for appearances sake, and "full of dead men's bones," empty and compassionless deep down.
"Greg Jones is national director for Blacks for Obama."
Oh the irony!
Its sad that Obama isn't for blacks.
It's way past time for President Obama to stop floundering around with his Presidency and come out with a bold plan to completely remedy the hole the United States has dug itself into.
Please read Dave Lindorff's Blog page: "Obama's Narrowing Window of Opportunity." He's got it all together!!! You won't believe how simple the solution could be if the President really meant what he said during his campaign.
You can find it here:
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/?q=node/362
Thanks for the link. I like how Lindorff likens health care to a national emergency and an executive order is reasonable in this circumstance. Hell, our entire economy is on life support and is a national emergency.
Karen Jones was a free person, making free healthcare choices for herself in our free market syatem - the syatem that accords the greatest freedom for all. She died a free woman like the 22,000 other people in her situation every year.
Under socialism, she would have had these lifesaving drugs forced on her, whether she wanted them or not! This (like taxes) is coercion!
Free minds and free markets!
I think you're on the wrong site. Shouldn't you be over at the Ayn Rand Circle Jerk?
The fact that you couldn't percieve the bitter sarcasm dripping from this obvious piece of satire doesn't reflect well on your intelligence.
Oh come on pjd,
We're having fun. I knew you did not mean it with that "greatest system providing freedom for all" stuff.
Not sure what you are getting at, but there are enough absurdities in my little piece to clearly label it as satire. But I agree, real "libertarians" have drifted off into a level of extremism that is impossible to parody. Some of them really would argue that government-provided free lifesaving medicine is "coercion".
Wow Blair,
We actually agree on something! Did you feel the ground shake too?
in Amerika, there is a shortage of free minds and "free markets" has always been a myth. Amerika has no shortage of selfish bastards, however. So happy I left that hell hole.
Yes! There's no such thing as the "free market." Just like there's no Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy or Flying Spaghetti Monster.
There is, however, a god. Apparently it is worshipped by profits and shareholders across the financial universe.
I once thought I saw the flying spaghetti monster at an Italian restaurant, but then I realized I had drunk twice as much wine as usual.
Sandy
I too lost my sister to SSI, in 2005. She fought like hell to finally win that check, and died before she could cash the first one that arrived in her mail box. At the hospital she had been told to take drugs, not surgery...and get to her local Fire Station weekly for BP monitoring, as it was free. The Rx labels listed deadly warnings...she was found slumped over in her trailer. Years ago I accompanied her to our County
Hospital for mental health treatment, as she had been raped age 8, but never QUALIFIED for that service. She was turned away...I then tried our Public Health Dept., as I had used them for my medical care when ill. No referral there either...drugs and advice...she worked all her life, married, divorced, raised a beautiful and sweet daughter...but at the time of her death was reduced to collecting cans and selling them for the value of their weight. Oh, and the step-daddy that raped her? Died a few months back from brain cancer; he was in his 80's, living with his third wife out of state. He spent one year in jail for her rape...she suffered needlessly all her life...justice and medical care in this country stinks.
Nothing being proposed by Obama, including the "Public Option" would likely have helped Greg Jones' sister. In fact, cuts to Medicare and Medicaid are proposed to pay for the private insurance corporation subsidies. I assume Ms. Jones was on Medicare due to her disability?
So, how can Mr. Jones still consider himself a "black for Obama"?
Here in 'socialist' Australia someone in Karen's situation would have a concession card which would mean that she would have had to pay a maximum of $A5.30 ($US4.40) for any prescription. Also concession card holders who spend $A318 ($US264.53) in a calendar year on medicine for themselves or their family receive all additional medicine free of charge. (This is partly paid for by a levy on all taxable incomes and by the fact that all drugs are in effect purchased by the government.)
Under the universal health insurance (which is called 'Medicare' here) treatment in emergency would have been free of charge as would have been a hospital bed if required. Further the disability pension here is $A1,151.60 ($US958.25) a month.
People without a concession card pay a maximum of $32.90 (US27.40) for a prescription, which reduces to $A5.30 if they spend more than $1,240.90 ($US1,033.17) in a calendar year.
The system here is not perfect but what happened to Greg Jones' sister could not happen here.
writer deleted duplicate post
Mr. Rogers;
Thank you for revealing what is done routinely in a civilized society.
But, as you have read in this article, america is not among the ranks of civilized nations. Civil decency, you see, is not consistent with the profit expectations of our rulers. Therefore it is seldom discussed here except to condemn it as "socialism".
Our peasants and bourgeoisie shudder at the word although most cannot define socialism nor explain why they fear it. Though they are not conscious of it, their fear and opposition have been cleverly engineered by associating socialism with vague stereotypes which in turn evoke their nastiest unspoken prejudices.
Those prejudices and consequent gullibilities are what fracture and divide this society and keep the usa proof against anything like the social coherrence you enjoy in Australia.
Guard it well - we are showing you the alternative.
Yes, and here in "socialist" France Karen would have swiped her Universal Coverage card through a little machine at the pharmacy, picked up her prescription (without paying one DAMN euro)...and headed home with life-saving meds.
BTW, disability payments in France are more than TWICE the measly amount Karen was subsisting on...nd with COMPLETE MEDICAL, including medications, dental, mental health, etc.
I am a FORMER American now residing and LIVING SOOOO WELL on minimum retirement in France. I find it more and more impossible to believe what goes on in the USA, even though I lived through most of these horror stories while caring for my elderly, WELL-INSURED parents for 5 years.
The USA, my FORMER country, has become a hell hole. A nightmare of unmitigated proportions.
I am sorry to hear about the loss of your sister.
“It was only in the barrio of the poor that [Dr. Plarr] ever encountered suffering in silence, suffering which had no vocabulary to explain a degree of pain, its position or its nature…he had to make his own interpretation from the shiver of the skin or a nervous shift of the eyes.” - Graham Greene, The Honorary Consul
“Our system is one of detachment – to keep silenced people from asking questions, to keep the judged from judging, to keep solitary people from joining together, and the soul from putting together its pieces.” Eduardo Galeano, Divorces
Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R) of Kansas, who hopes to see a "great white hope" step up to defeat President Obama and congressional Democrats, was recently confronted by one of her constituents, a full-time waitress with two young children. Her employer doesn't provide insurance, and she can't afford private coverage. “I want an option that I can pay for," she told her representative. "I work. I pay my bills. I'm not a burden on the state. I pay my taxes. So why can't I get an affordable option? Why are you against that?" Jenkins responded, "A government-run program is going to subsidize not only yours but everybody in this room. So I'm not sure what we're talking about here." “People should be given the opportunity to take care of themselves with a refund, or an advanceable tax credit, to go be a grown-up and go buy the insurance."
An Oklahoma woman, desperately needing health care assistance for her traumatic brain injured husband, tearfully told Sen. Tom Coburn (R) of Oklahoma, that their health insurer won't pay for some of his treatments. "We left the nursing home and they told us we are on our own." She broke down, pleading for help. Right after saying his office would try to help this woman's husband, Coburn said, "The idea that the government is the solution to our problems is an inaccurate, a very inaccurate statement."
“Fleas dream of buying themselves a dog, and nobodies dream of escaping poverty: that one magical day good luck will suddenly rain down on them – will rain down in buckets. But good luck doesn’t rain yesterday, today, tomorrow, or ever. Good luck doesn’t even fall in a fine drizzle, no matter how hard the nobodies summon it…the nobodies, the no ones, the nobodied…dying through life, screwed every which way…” – Eduardo Galeano, The Nobodies
A discourse on human rights must begin with the right to life that is the right precisely of the poor.
Re DakotabornKansan September 2nd, 2009 12:53 pm
Thanks for the Galeano quote, which nicely summarizes our problem: the dominant paradigm, by promoting the "rugged individualist" model, drives a wedge between people who would otherwise reach out to help or to be helped.
This, to me, is what socialism looks like: people who want to help enabled by the state's vast logistical apparatus, and people who need help finding it through the same means.
There is nothing more expensive than poverty nor is there anything quite as deadly.
This is just a disgrace for all of us. Between us all we should have been able to get single payer universal health care long ago. As for an unfettered free market please read:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8234533.stm
From which the following excerpt comes.
Pfizer illegally promoted four drugs and caused false claims to be submitted to government healthcare programmes for uses that were not medically accepted.
And let's note, there were without doubt fraudulent claims made to the major insurance carriers but it was 'inept, inefficient, government controlled' entitites that brought the suit.
I read on other sites frequently how people should be encouraged to fend for themselves, pull themselves together etc etc. I can see how some might perversely criticise the poor for being independent. Its so easy to constantly blame the victim.
My sincere good wishes to Karen's family.
Thanks for the input on Pfizer. Noting that it comes from the BBC(UK), I searched for coverage in the U.S. Despite the magnitude of the offense and the penalties, the news coverage is apparently being minimized/suppressed in this land of the free.
I did find a story datelined 9/2/09 on the Yahoo Financial page:
"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal prosecutors hit Pfizer Inc. with a record-breaking $2.3 billion in fines Wednesday and called the world's largest drugmaker a repeating corporate cheat for illegal drug promotions that plied doctors with free golf, massages, and resort junkets." (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Pfizer-to-pay-record-23B-apf-1176280604.html?x=0)
The good news is there may be a few straight arrows left at the Justice Dept.
But NPR reported that the total penalties represent only 3-weeks profit for Pfizer. Which explains why:
"Authorities called Pfizer a repeat offender, noting it is the company's fourth such settlement of government charges in the last decade. The allegations surround the marketing of 13 different drugs, including big sellers such as Viagra, Zoloft, and Lipitor. /// Loucks (U.S. Attorney) said that even as Pfizer was negotiating deals on past misconduct, they were continuing to violate the very same laws with other drugs."
In other words, no big deal - just business as usual. The costs will be covered in the next round of drug price increases (which Medicare is forbidden by law to negotiate).
So, the corporate rallying cry: BOHICA! (Bend Over, Here It Comes AGain)
Rightwingers would be estatic to learn how forcefully your sister applied their ethic of 'self reliance' to its apparent conclusion. They would cheer her unwillingness to discomfort others to ease her suffering, and hold her up as an example to their children. To them every man really is an island, its just some of us live on Bermuda and others live on Haiti. To the rest of the world, however, her case would be seen as unnecessarily tragic. They would understand that making life and death decisions from the fog of pain and illness is never a good idea, yet that is what our healthcare system insisted of your sister. In fact, that's what our privatized system of healthcare 'choice' insists of us all: that we make our 'choices' from a place of extreme discomfort, confusion, and ailment. It knows we'll make the wrong choice and it'll profit from it. How this is not 'predation', I'll never know.
Good description of what happens every day, all around us. Many good comments and stories here.
Working in hospitals, I frequently saw people discharged with a handful of prescriptions and not even enough money to get home, if they had a home. Many times I hailed and paid for a cab for disabled people who had been basically dumped out of the door, and ended up standing outside looking confused and sometimes in tears. Sometimes they were neatly dressed seniors who, like Karen, did not advertise their poverty.
(If you are poor and don't have family or friends who are in a position to help, you are really out of luck.)
The doctors do not concern themselves with trivialites like patients' ability to pay. Poverty is a mystery to the upper class professional. It seems absurd to them that someone does not have $197 for a prescription. Of course they have it, or if not, it is because they wasted their money.
We have to make the realities of life more apparent by telling these stories as Greg Jones has.
And Greg Jones - are you still satisfied with Obama's leadership on the issue of health care?
Joe
Sioux Rose
JCLIENTELLE: You pointed the pivotal question at Mr. Jones. If he anwers yes, he's deluding himself; and if he ponders why he can't respond in the affirmative, he begins a political journey towards the land of RADICAL promise. I hope he takes many others along.
Sioux Rose
The article moved me to tears. It's true that one story brings the statistics (of who's off the medical help rolls) into perspective. What hits me hardest is the reality that such enormous sums are wasted on bankers who gamble away the savings of those in the nation who were trying to maintain a nest egg for their futures; and that's when worse sums are not thrown at war, militarism, or the latest design and development of more and more horrific weapon systems. There is always money for these dark deeds, but so little trinkles down to those in need. What helps me when faced with such calamitous data is my belief and faith in the law of karma. Ultimately any who sat at decision-making tables that made sure a woman like this would not have enough to pay for her rent and medication, while lavishing immoral salaries on those who write these inhumane scripts, will have to face their crimes. They will have much to answer for, and should our world maintain enough stable environments for said souls to reincarnate, they will, like Mother Theresa, find themselves thoroughly devoted to the task(s) of alleviating the load, the unbearable pain, that others so wearily carry.
There is so much abundance, truly an embarassment of riches on this planet, wounded as its ecosystems may be. That the few have devised systems that secure for them far more than is needed, while so many suffer with what little they can claim, is a travesty that will fill books through future centuries. That hardly means I have given up supporting a quest for social justice in the present; but it's a consolation when so many leaders turn away from doing the right thing, to instead pad the pockets of their privileged circle of amoral thieves.
I recently spent several hours reading numerous Daily Kos diaries, (which I never did before, by the way). The diaries often attract a lot of comments.
What I discovered is that if the mandate passes but the public option does not pass, there will be widespread and I do mean widespread civil disobedience, and the Democrats will be severely hammered in the next several elections. Furthermore, many believe that the Republicans are intentionally trying to maneuver the gullible Democrats into ending up with the mandate but no or a weak public option, because they know that they will be able to successfully run against the Democrats for many years to come when the public rebels against the ultra regressive taxation that a mandate without an extremely strong public option is.
Whether it is possible for even a strong public to reduce and keep in check health insurance prices is dubious. It's not clear that Americans in their present state could make a "strong public option" work even if they set out to do it.
It is likely that even a "strong public option" would be a complete flop and would eventually result in heavy civil disobedience and heavy political losses for the Democrats. But you know how the Republicans are: they always want and frequently get the whole loaf. In this case, they are holding out for no public option or a fake, weak public option, while allowing the mandate to slink through, probably through the backdoor. This combination will allow the Republicans to optimize their power to clean up against the Democrats in the elections down the road.
Back in the real world of the American peasantry, there were actually a large number of posters at Daily Kos guaranteeing right here and now that unless there was a true and strong public option, they would refuse to buy grossly overpriced private health insurance from corporations with obscene profits.
Rather, they would continue to in effect be self insured. Interestingly and importantly, several pointed out that they have, in recent years and in the real world, financially come out ahead by paying for health care needs out of pocket rather than paying all the premiums, deductibles, co-pays, uncovered invoiced items, disallowed invoiced items, and other fees associated with a private insurance policy.
Although it was nice to see that Daily Kos folks have become aware of how they are being played in the health care debate, I like Common Dreams better because people there are not as liable to being fooled and played in the first place.
Health care for all and with costs under control is the only way life can be completely worth living. Without it, the country is really nothing more than a hell hole where people die early deaths.
Thanks for visiting Daily Kos so I don't have to, and thanks for this report.
· Yr Obd't Servant
No kidding. What a cesspool that place is.
It's always good for a laugh to find out what the political operatives and hangers-on are doing.
If anybody actually believes the folks over on daily kos are going to instigate "civil disobedience" when Obama punks us on the public option, I've got a bridge for sale.
I agree.
I just visited an older doctor to check on my heart and blood pressure. I am totally uninsured and had given up on care.
He gave a lecture about how inadequate at caring for myself I was. I had explained that my medication was 50 per prescription for a total of $100 a month. I also explained that I must choose between food, electric bills, fuel for a vehicle to get to work and medication.
At first I was offered a few days of medication to take home. I was told as I left that he had changed his mind.
I had a two hour drive to get home which gave me time to think.
He was actually offended by what he felt was my irresponsible behavior. He could not conceive that a $50 prescription was a big deal.
When I briefly had health insurance last year I had a dentist tell me that he was glad that I had finally decided to take care of my health.
In the doctor and dentists reality I was an evil person.
In my reality food and other necessary items for daily living had to come before extremely expensive medical and dental care.
I guess I could do without lights or food and be much more responsible. I'll probably join the author's sister in premature death.
I know of what you are speaking. Some doctors have their heads up their asses. When this happens, you MUST seek another doctor. These so-called professionals will only cost you your life. There is no understanding in the hearts of these freaks.
The boss class scumbags probably lurk on "progressive" sites so they can savor the impotent whimpering of the mass class.
Every report of suffering by people unable to afford health care gives the boss class scumbags a surge of pleasure.
Your agony is their ecstasy.
I am having a real moment of cognitive dissonance here. First of course profound condolences to Mr. Greg Jones and to his sister who asphyxiated to death slowly, alone cause she couldn't afford to live in White America. The dissonance derives from his involvement in B4O especially after the Kabuki theater his hero has staged over health care. I have done death watch for my best friend when she died from diagnosable, preventable, curable cancer because she was poor - but until the end at least she was alive in her world ALIVE not DEAD in life as so many are in America today in ANY degree or lack of pigmentation. White America has now created a society where there are worse states than being dead - and White America doesn't care. 50 million out of 300mn? Tell'em to just go away and die, more for everybody else. That's white america. That's why this nation, this diseased empire is just about to die.
My sister had a heart attack in her late 40's. My sister and brother-in-law had catastrophic insurance only. It runs out when she is released from the rehabilitation facility. She needs physical therapy and ongoing checkups. Now with an existing condition, they will find it next to impossible to get coverage that is not astronomical. This has financially devastated them.
I find the cost of health and dental care outrageous even with insurance! I have friends that live in Sweden, the UK, and family that lives in Italy. They have all told me that socialized medicine has never been a problem for them. There are no waits to see a specialist or to go to an emergency room. My father had an asthma attack while on vacation in Italy. He never got a bill!
What is wrong with our system when It allows CEOs to rob us of stimulus money to line their pockets, to jet set around the world, and to have all the money for the best of medical care for themselves while showing no compassion for those of much less financial mobility? I'm really suprised they are not hunted down one by one. Now that is a reality show I would love to watch!