“I work just for our health insurance…”

One woman was saying to her friend as I passed. That was all I heard due to the hood of my winter coat being up and walking in overdrive just trying to stay warm this morning.

But it was enough to get me thinking - with this upcoming election and all the ideas being tossed around about health care...is there any one good plan?

I have had first hand experience with the power of health insurance companies and how it can affect your life……literally.

In February of 2003 I was two months out of a life-saving stem cell transplant and my oncologist suggested that I apply for a new experimental treatment – blind study, not sure if I could get in, but he said “What I know about your disease and being you are relatively young – I am advising you to do it – just for some ‘extra’ insurance it doesn’t return.”

Hard to argue with one of the most knowledgeable doctors in his field. So I applied and I was accepted for the study.

My doctor’s team took care of all the insurance paperwork and the scheduling of my inpatient stay, etc.

The day finally arrived and I entered the hospital. That was the same day my insurance company denied my treatment.

They weren’t going to pay because it was “experimental.”

I was fortunate enough to have a doctor that said “I don’t care – she is in and we will work it out.”

That treatment cost $25,000 and some change – the entire cost was picked up by the hospital, under the direction of my doctor.

It helped save my life.

We all know there are many other people who aren’t as fortunate and have lost everything they have worked their whole lives for in order to pay for their or a loved one’s treatment. Sometimes because they were unable to afford the proper treatment, they paid the ultimate price with their life.

So what is the right plan?

I don't know....but I do know that there has got to be a better way to manage health care – where what is best for the patient comes before power and greed.

must succeed