Guaranteed Healthcare

Treatment Delayed for Months, But Insurance Cancelled When Just One Day Late with Payment

"I have been an RN since 1978. Last year I was hospitalized with a white blood cell count of 1.6. My WBCs improved, but I remained very sick—pain, fatigue, short of breath, and suffer subluxation of both hips and one shoulder. I did not have Family Medical Leave Act protection because I had only been at my job for eight months. I was 'asked' to resign," said Lisa Kelleher of Kernersville, N.C.  "I collected private disability for six weeks, and then because of a history of Ehlers-Danblos syndrome in my family, I was told that no further payments would be issued until I was seen by a geneticist.

"I cannot apply for Social Security Disability because I have the functional capacity to do some other type of part-time work. I paid for insurance with COBRA religiously, at a cost of $460 per month. In May, I forgot to mail my payment by one day. My insurance was cancelled retroactively to March 31—so now even if I were able to find insurance, the preexisting conditions apply.

"I have applied for Medicaid and that is a possibility because my child is handicapped and has Medicaid. But right now, I have nothing and I will have to pay the geneticist out of pocket. I now function at about 40 percent of the capacity I had a year ago, and I have 30 percent of the income I had for the last 10 years. The level of pain that I have from joint erosion is often unbearable. Is this how the medical profession treats its own, when we cease to function at the level we once did? I am trying to have some faith, but there are days when it is too hard to think about surviving.

"I know I'm not the only one going through this and that makes it even more wrong. It's so hard to fight the system; they wait until we're down to kick us harder and we don't have the strength to fight back," Lisa shared.

------------------------------- 

Sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

Eighty-two percent of Americans think the U.S. healthcare system should be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt (Commonwealth Fund, Aug. 7, 2008). America's nurses know that only single-payer, improved and expanded Medicare for all will fix our broken system and the tragedy of our devastated families. HR 676, by U.S. Rep John Conyers, is the most comprehensive, cost effective way to achieve guaranteed healthcare for all.

For more information, or to contact this patient: Liz Jacobs, RN 510/273-2232.