[4522] in comp.os.os2.announce archive
COOA: administrative
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mick Brown)
Thu Jan 7 03:47:16 1999
To: os2ann.DISCUSS@bloom-picayune.mit.edu
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 1999 21:34:22 -0500
From: mick.brown.mc.75@aya.yale.edu (Mick Brown)
Reply-To: mick.brown.mc.75@aya.yale.edu (Mick Brown)
First a personal birthday wish for my sister Linda. Who is a brave
wonderful funny woman. Happy 45th.
Linda was diagnosed with advanced astrositoma (brain cancer) on or about 11
September and had surgery and radiation treatments. Unfortunately the cancer
has continued to grow and she will have a second operation tomorrow,
7 January 1999.
With this and other family related problems and poor health I will be
resigning soon as comp.os.os2.announce moderator. I am sorry for the dropped
and late postings. I think I have a replacement moderator, but I still have
to confirm some details with the person I've contacted.
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I am posting the following to give you a little sense of what it is like to
be disabled or poor and requiring medical assistance in the USA. My sister
has no insurance, and may possibly have been treated before her cancer
reached an advanced state if private medical insurance were affordable. Few
employers of loggers in Northern Idaho offer any insurance benefits.
I am disabled and with the January raise of $9 receiving Social Security
Disability payments of $667 per month. The State Medicaid said $659 was the
income cap for eligibility, I am afraid that I may be without insurance
again. I think it is a ridiculously low income limit, my share of the rent
is almost half that.
List prices for my current diabetes treatment needs are $70/month for 100
test strips and $90/month for 30 glucophage tablets which might double or
triple if the dosage needs to be increased to the more common 2 or 3 tabs
per day doses. My primary and disabling medical condition costs an
estimated $280 per month in addition. If I were able to go back to work I'd
probably be refused private coverage for either of my chronic conditions
because of the high monthly costs for treatment.
One poster in misc.health.diabetes reported that he hopes he dies because
he is so tired trying to get treatment and disability benefits from the US
system. I fully underatand his feelings. I live in the Wealthiest state in
the USA and cannot find a decent provider--the one Medicaid dentist I know
said "sorry we're booked call again next month" for four months. I still
the open wound from an unfinished rootcanal I was calling about. Eventually
I gave up trying to get services from Hill Health Center and still have the
hole in my jaw), and the interminable phone calls and dissappoining answers
are frustrating and depressing. I've asked state agencies for lists of
providers, and none of their workers has given me any help--they say look
it up in the phone book and ask them individually.
In Connecticut few physicians or dentists will provide for Medicaid
patients. My friend and former primary physician said that he tried to deal
with Connecticut Medicaid but that they required multiple submissions of
forms and paid very late so he couldn't afford to deal with it but he had
no problems with Medicare. My experience with the state prior to
reinstatement is that Connecticut Medicaid twice delayed their payment to
Social Security for so long that Medicare started taking money out of my
checks which I couldn't afford. CT medicaid cut off a paraplegic with
multiple disabilities because she got married and her husband though lower
middle class pushed the family income over the limit. Lots of disabled
people find they have to divorce in order to get disability coverage for
their ailments.
I have been fighting to get my medical benefits back since this Spring and
they finally came through in October. Since 20 November I have been
fighting to get treatment from Yale New Haven Hospital/Yale Medical School
www.ynhh.org / www.yale.edu for my diabetes. I've been feeling cruddy for a
year, exhaused all the time, headachy, digestive irregularities, ketosis
and had fluctuating and blurry vision -- all diabetes symptoms.
I am furious about the sub-standard treatment at Yale New Haven Hospital:
the physician refused to see me or make a diabetes referral for 69 days
even though I had 2 fasting sugar levels above the levels established by
AMA and WHO for diabetes diagnosis not to mention 4 previous physician's
diagoses. Yale is supposed to offer world class treatment. My experience is
that they're nearly as over booked as city financed Hill Health Center.
I finally gave up on getting timely service from Yale and visited St.
Raphael's Hospital who saw me with minimal delay and once I saw the physician
he immediately referred me to a dietician and gave me medications and glucose
monitoring equipment. I still haven't heard from Yale despite emails to the
Hospital administrator, administrators at Yale medical School, and the
physician at Yale New Haven Hospital around 29 November... to top it off they
want to charge me $0.65 per page to get my medical transcripts!
(There is an official CT state document mentioning Medicaid, Yale University
& Oxford Health Plan at: http://www.dss.state.ct.us/pubs/mcare.pdf page 11).
I am feeling better with the new medication and dietary changes, and I hope
for the best tomorrow with my sister. But I think the medical financing
system in the USA stinks on ice.
I'm sorry for the rant. I'm tired of being ill being unable to afford
treatment. I'm scared for my sister, scared for my relatives who can't
afford insurance. If any of you feel moved to write your legislators,
I'd appreciate that.
-- Mick Brown soon to be exmoderator of comp.os.os2.announce
Yale Alumnus very disappointed in Yale University
