The bad news

March 18, 2025 progressive living No comments

Mike was a proud, unapologetic jackass, and it served him well.

On this day in 2008, I brought my son home to die.

We had been told he needed to gain 2 pounds before his next chemo appointment, and he had done his best to eat anything he could tolerate, but when he stepped on the scale, he had lost another pound. I’ll never forget the look on his face, as he said, “I tried, I tried.”

I remember Dr. Hurwitz choking up as he said, “You’re a good person, Mike. You don’t deserve what’s happening to you.” I couldn’t help but notice the difference between this and the Savnnah doctor’s cavalier attitude as he told Mike there was nothing more he was willing to do (I also remember dropping an F-bomb on that thoughtless monster).

The nurse tactfully told Mike he didn’t have much time left and that he should go home with me that day, which relieved his roommate and best friend, James.

“I’ve been so afraid I’d come home and find he had died while I was at work,” James told me.

As we were leaving the clinic, Mike turned and looked at me.

“How much time do you think I have?” He asked. “Maybe two weeks?”

“I hope it’s more than that,” I replied.

When we got back to his apartment, I called his father, who had survived stage 3 colon cancer and couldn’t seem to grasp why Mike hadn’t. I lost my cool a little as I explained that he’d had all the access to care Mike didn’t have. He had money to make co-pays and deductibles. He had the top-of-the-line medical insurance, while Mike only got Mediaid after he moved and left his wife. He had to leave his wife, I reminded his father. I gave him a moment to allow that to sink in, but it didn’t. He kept insisting there must be something we can do because he was so damned used to being able to buy whaterver he needed and he assumed the rest of us enjoyed that level of privelege.

“What can I do?” he wailed between sobs.

I lost it.

“You can send him some fucking money!” I said. “He has lived in poverty for the last three years while he waited for approval for his disability — which we’re still waiting for, by the way. Meanwhile, everyone else supported him. We fixed his car, we paid his bills, we bought him clothes. You gave him a loan that came with a lecture on the importance of repaying it. It’s too late for you to do anything of consequence. You had your chance and you blew it.”

I was surprised at how angry I was. I wanted to feel regret for what I had said, but I didn’t. I still don’t. But I did make sure he had the chance to come and say goodbye to Mike, and that it was a good visit.

It was a three-hour drive from his apartment to my house. He told me he was glad he didn’t wait longer to come. I got it. Coming home meant he was ready to die, when he loved his life so damn much. Whatever he was put here to do, he had done it.

I didn’t know how much time we had left, but I knew it would be measured in days, perhaps weeks. Until then I would soak him up. Every wisecrack, every cackle, every goofy moment.

It turned out he was right on our way out of the clinic. On this day in 2008, we would have just two more weeks with him.

His first disability check would arrive nine days later, 37 months after he applied.

Just short of two years later, the Affordable Care Act would pass, forcing insurance companies to cover people with “pre-existing conditions.” Insurance companies wouldn’t have to cede much power, as it turned out. The average family deductible for an employer-sponsored policy is over $3700 at a time when nearly half of Americans report they can’t pay a $400 surprise bill without borrowing money. People still can’t afford care.

While most states have expanded Medicaid, it could become a moot point as the current administration plans to slash its funding. Tens of thousands of Americans die every year just the way my son did in 2008 — probably more than 2 million since he died — and the current administration is planning drastic cuts.

The bad news 17 years ago was that my son was dying; the bad news today is that things are even worse now.

The immorality of our health care system remains

February 18, 2023 progressive living No comments
My late son, Mike, with my husband on a hike in Maine in 1998.

Thirteen years ago today, less than two years after our broken helath care system killed my son, it very nearly killed my husband.

He had felt a heaviness in his chest for several days, and with his family history — the men tend to die of heart attacks in their 40s and 50s — he went to the doctor. She ordered an EKG, which was alarming, so she called his cardiologist. They informed him our insurance required preauthorization for cardiograms, even after an alarming EKG. It could take a couple days.

Fortunately, he survived the wait, and the cardiologist sent us straight to the hospital. Do not stop at home, do not collect your pajamas and toothbrush, get to the ER. He was rushed upstairs and diagnosed with a nearly complete blockage of the artery knows as the “widowmaker,” and taken into surgery within an hour. Still, just as they got him onto the table, his heart quit. His doctor told me if it had happened so much as a minute earlier, he would have died. As it was, he wouldn’t be out of the woods for about 48 hours after double bypass. The wait imposed by the insurance company, which went against medical advice, very nearly killed him.

I got a little revenge two years later, when North Carolina was considering building its own Marketplace for the Affordable Care Act. I was part of a panel of stakeholders brainstorming and advocating. The rep from my insurance company stated that they would like to be able to keep costs down by insisting on preauthorization for expensive tests.

I raised my hand.

“Would that mean pre-auth for shoulder MRIs or, say, cardiograms after a bad EKG?”

“Oh, we would never do that,” she said.

“You’re gonna have to walk that back,” I said. As she reacted with shock, I added, “I have the record of when you made my husband wait 48 hours for pre-auth after a truly alarming EKG.”

More “shock” from her. “That’s inexcusable! Who’s your carrier?”

“You are.”

Suddenly, everyone was scribbling on their notepads. The insurance company would not get permission to demand pre-auth in cases where people’s lives were at stake. Sure, demand pre-auth for non-vital tests, but not for tests that diagnose life-threatening conditions.

The insurance company that wouldn’t sell insurance to my son and that delayed my husband’s cardiogramdamn nearly long enough to kill him is still in business. They’re classified as a nonprofit, but they are powerful and they, together with others, are loaded with cash to bribe lawmakers to maintain their power over our lives.

Yes, the Affordable Care Act forced Big Insurance to sell insurance to everyone, but copays and deductibles average almost $4,000 per person, and some of the networks are so narrow that if you fall ill on vacation, it could bankrupt you. This is at the same time nearly half of Americans say they can’t pay an unplanned expense of $400 without borrowing money.

So-called “Christians” are happy to spent $14 million on commercials to tell people Jesus loved them, but to live what Jesus told them — to heal, feed, clothe and love the poor and marginalized — seems to be beyond their capabilities. Instead, they vote for lawmakers who will impoverish them and then vilify them for being poor.

These are the same people who ask whether my son was working when he gor sick, implying that he was somehow undeserving of care, even of life itself.

Fifteen years ago today, I was in Raleigh, contemplating life without my precious son. Two years later on this day, I would be cotemplating life without my husband, all because we can’t do what every other industrialized nation has done and move to a system that covers EVERYONE.

So, if you want to talk morality, explain to me the morality of allowing tens of thousands of people to die every year, of healing only the rich, of putting and keeping people in poverty. If this is your view, you are most definitely not morally superior to anyone.

Anger and lies on the right

September 27, 2013 a world of progress, letters, progressive living No comments

As the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces finally open for business, opponents of health reform are getting desperate.

Take, for example, the 21-hour circus sideshow fake filibuster by Texas Republican Ted Cruz in the Senate.

Take the willingness of Republicans to take down the entire government in a desperate last-ditch effort to kill the law.

Look at the TV ads with the frightening Uncle Sam head popping up behind a doctor’s examining table.

In the last week, my son read stories about how Georgia will be the most expensive state in the county to buy insurance. I did some reading on my own and found the numbers in the story were NOT the average prices but the worst-case scenario — you know, someone my age who would not be eligible for assistance.

In fact, Georgia is not the most expensive, it’s the middle of the the pack, and if you make less than four times the federal poverty level (about $46,000 for an individual, $60,000 for a couple and $93,000 for a family of four), you will get help paying for your premiums.

Then yesterday, I heard North Carolina will be the most expensive. Look at the graphic here. It’s in the middle of the pack too, along with California and New York. I’ll bet they have similar misinformation campaigns in every state.

In all, prices are about 16 percent below what was first predicted. Granted, it’s not cheap, but for most people, it will be affordable. The hysterics are nothing more than lies perpetrated by the very people who want the law gone. These are the people who are going around telling young adults to “burn your Obamacare draft card.”

I suppose people could do that if there were an Obamacare draft card, but there isn’t.

Those creepy Uncle Sam head TV ads also are lies. You will buy your insurance from a private company and you will see your own doctor.

Your insurance company can no longer deny necessary treatment, thanks to the law.

They can’t charge you a co-pay for annual physicals, cancer and other screenings or immunizations, thanks to the law.

They can’t put annual or lifetime caps on coverage.

They can’t throw you to the curb if you get sick.

They have to pay out 80 to 85 percent of what they collect in premiums on direct services.

And they don’t like all this regulation because it cuts into their obscene profits.

Because of all the money spent to spread the misinformation, 70 percent of the people who are eligible for help in paying for their premiums don’t know it. More than one-third of Americans think the law was repealed.

The truth is the Republicans in the House of Representatives have voted 41 times to repeal the law, but have failed to get it done, thank God.

The truth is that 45,000 Americans died in this country every year from lack of access to care before the Affordable Care Act, and thousands will continue to die because of GOP-led efforts to deny Medicaid expansion.

These are not pro-life people, no matter what they say. I have had some argue that point with me, but the truth is that if you want to deny people access to life-saving care, if you lie to convince people not to take advantage of access to care, you are not pro-life, no matter how much you love unborn babies.

 

 

 

Happy “Obamacare” birthday

March 23, 2012 a world of progress, progressive living No comments

Carolyn Comeau with her husband, Craig and their children, Louise and Colin.

As we celebrate the second anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, we can’t become complacent. Its opponents, funded by the massive Health Industrial Complex, are stepping up their attacks and lies.

Just the other day I saw the tired old “death panels” online again, and the lie that anyone older than 75 won’t get treatment if they get cancer. I answered with a paragraph from the law that forbids age discrimination.

So, what’s the truth? Well, my friend Carolyn Comeau can tell you that she doesn’t have to worry about her family going bankrupt if her breast cancer should come back. She was diagnosed five years ago with breast cancer. Soon afterward, her husband, Craig, lost his job, but they were able to maintain coverage through COBRA. It nearly broke the bank to pay the premiums, but they got her through treatment.

Just as COBRA was ending and they discovered that Carolyn was uninsurable, the state’s high-risk pool came online, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. The coverage isn’t cheap, but it’s not unaffordable for the family, either.

Older Americans are getting more help paying for their prescriptions; 2.5 million young adults are able to stay on their parents’ policies until they reach age 25. People who have insurance no longer have to pay anything out-of-pocket for screening tests like colonoscopies and mammography. Insurance companies can’t dump you if you get sick, and a birth defect is no longer grounds for an insurance company to refuse coverage to a child. That last one alone might have saved my son.

For all the bad press the Affordable Care Act is getting, for all the deliberate lies about what’s in the law, it still has the approval of about half of Americans, and many who don’t approve say it’s because the law doesn’t go far enough.

I’d still like to see a public option. Give me the opportunity to buy into Medicare so I don’t have to send money to insurance companies that spend billions on lobbyists and mega-bonuses for their executives.

For all its flaws — the biggest of which is that more than 20 million Americans will remain uninsured — the Affordable Care Act has improved our health care system and is poised to do a lot more.

So, I’m celebrating today that we finally got that first step to a better system for all Americans.