My Healthcare Story and the Insurance Company That Bankrupted Me

United Healthcare was the insurance company I bought coverage from. I was considered contract labor so I had to provide my own healthcare. United Healthcare was the only insurance company providing coverage for individuals at the time I needed coverage, so they had a monopoly and could and did charge exorbitant rates. My coverage started at $325 a month one person and increased every four or five months. I got sick and needed tests. My insurance went up to $500 a month. I got a diagnosis they didn't like and my premium doubled. I couldn't afford $1,000 a month for coverage of just me. And every time they raised my rate they raised my copay and deductible. Every charge was denied and had to be fought. I couldn't work because I was too ill. I couldn't fight with my insurance company because I was too ill. I didn't have to money to keep paying $1,000 a month while refusing to cover anything. Then I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and they dropped me. I was hospitalized for two weeks and put on four very expensive drugs. My only option then was to put medical charges on credit cards. I was late with a payment, my interest rate doubled. I got behind on making my minimum payments and the credit card companies came after me. After two years of struggling to make minimum payments while being called a deadbeat twenty times a day by the credit card companies I filed for bankruptcy. Finally I applied for disability. It took two years to get disability, but finally I had coverage for my medical treatments and prescriptions. Medicare has never questioned a test, or change of medication, or treatment by a specialist or a drug order. This is the public option I want for all of you

Catching Up

I've been missing in action again. You may not even have noticed, but if you have, I apologize. I'm posting the last two chapters of the novel, Maggy. Then I need to practice writing a query letter. One of the good things about twitter is that there are a bunch of literary agents on twitter; I'm following several of them. And it seems the big hurdle for most writers seeking an agent is learning the art of the query letter. So I'll soon start practicing my query letter writing. Seems to be part pitch, part bio, part appeal to the ego of the agent. I can write a novel, a short story, a poem, but a pitch? We'll see.

Yesterday I had atrial fibrillation and hinky blood pressure. In the past I didn't feel the atrial fibrillation, but yesterday it put me down like an old dog. I was ashen and exhausted, and completely uninspired. It was one more day in a month of extremely high temperatures, so as well as sick, I was limp from the heat. I promised my neighbor that if I woke up today with hinky blood pressure and the stuttering pulse, I'd call my doctor. Well, I seem fine today, but still called my doctor's office to let her know about yesterday's episode. I see her in a couple of weeks anyway. I think the stress of having three girlfriends who are so seriously ill has stressed me to the limit. It's as if I can't bear the fact that I am going to be left alone, alive and very old. Some would say this is better than the alternative, but I'm not so sure. It was always my plan to exit early. Yet here I am older than I ever imagined I'd be.

I'm going to be following the healthcare debate very carefully. I wish to god I were very very rich so I could contribute several million to anyone who could defeat Orin Hatch. That old prissy prick needs to retire. He is as right-wing as one gets, and completely in the pocket of the insurance industry. Harry Reid needs to go too. Harry is about as spineless as they come. I think Harry's problem is that he's a Mormon, and as a Mormon he ought to be a republican. He reminds me of Joey Leiberman. He's straddling the fence of his religious values and his political affiliation and it's giving him a wedgie. So I'd pump some money into bringing down Harry as well. Then there are the "blue dog democrats." I'd start going after them with my discretionary millions. Boy is it fun to dream those kind of dreams. How nice it would be to have the money to influence the outcome of political races. United Healthcare is going to be going full-out to fight the possibility of a public option. Do not let those criminals change the debate. United Healthcare and it's "think tank" the Lewin Group is still rich enough to pour hundreds of millions into fighting a public option. Do not let them influence you. Please write and call your elected representatives to let them know where you stand on the healthcare debate. Sorry if that sounds like a lecture, but this is important. I have medicare, you should too. It's the best medical coverage I ever had, and I used to pay $1,000 a month to United Healthcare for shitty coverage.