Real Life SiCKO

Breast cancer survivor Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake shares more about her health insurance woes:




"As I said before, I just thought everyone knew that when you had a catastrophic illness you wound up with huge bills despite being “fully insured,” with your insurance company working overtime to find reasons to deny your claims. “Out of network,” “in excess of usual and customary” or “not medically necessary” are the mechanisms they use to keep you paying. And paying. And paying.


So I thought I’d share yet another one. The bill at the left is from another doctor. The “your responsibility to pay” portion — $5,336.13. So just in case anyone was thinking that the bill for $15,684.94 was some kind of anomaly, lemme tell ya — I got a box full of ‘em.


For anybody keeping count, this is in excess of the $11,000 I had to pay in “out of pocket” expenses last year, as well as this year (because my treatment fell across two calendar years), and the $307 per month I pay for the insurance in the first place. And the $4000 test I mentioned that which diagnosed my breast cancer that has been deemed “not medically necessary?” I checked and I was wrong. The bill is for $4500.


This is the rule, not the exception. And these are the “insurance companies” whose delicate feelings we need to spare when coming up with a plan to get Americans the health care they need to stay alive.


The poor dears."