Occupation:: Safety and Environmental Analyst

I am 37 years old and suffer from severe chrohn’s disease. In 2003, I underwent a laparoscopic loop diverting colostomy. I now have a medical necessity for ostomy supplies. My current insurance company will not cover the cost of these supplies because they say they are “disposable.” Of course they are disposable! The cost of these supplies per year is over $1000. I have used my flexible spending account to cover some of the cost, but today I had to fight them to approve an $84 expense for one box of colostomy bags. They required that I submit a letter from my doctor stating that these supplies are medically necessary. Why on earth would anyone purchase ostomy supplies if they weren’t medically necessary? Unfortunately these are supplies I can’t live without and I struggle to pay for them. I have filed an appeal with my insurance company, United Healthcare, but they still will not cover my supplies. I am not sure where to go next.

Occupation:: Spanish Interpreter

Breast feeding is one of the most talked topics in the world and not only by parents but in healthy care professions.Breast feeding is by far the best way to provide a better health for infants. One because of all the benefits that it can provide. Bottle feeding is another options but it is proven that it is not the best way to provide nutrients. There has been many research done to prove that breast feeding is better than bottle feeding. Even the lactation group at Children’s Hospital in Colorado has proven that it is by far the best way to provide a better health. By showing that how many infants now a days are being breast fed we can show that it is becoming a better way to provide the best nutrients for the babies first year. Even though breast feeding is known as the best way to provide good health for a baby there are still people that rather do bottle feeding. Doctors just provide the best options but it is really up to the parent to decide what is best for their children.

Occupation:: Student, CNA

It is time for the government to make a difference in dental care, thus improving the lives of its people and reducing frivolous government spending!

By making dental care affordable and accessible to all Americans, the actual amount of healthcare costs for Medicaid will decrease. There are several ways of accomplishing a successful dental healthcare program. Through education of proper dental care and preventive treatment children and adults can have the added benefit of better health and fewer emergency room visits. To encourage dentist to participate in Medicaid and low cost dental care, the government must offer fair reimbursement for dental expenses. Another idea that the American Dental Association came up with was to create a position in the dental workplace similar to a nurse practitioner. By reducing amount of time and money spent for schooling, these trained practitioners would work under a dentist’s supervision, but be able to significantly increase the amount of patients being treated. The cost of preventative care, routine checkups, and minor dental work is significantly lower than the current cost of an ER visit and the patient would get real treatment for their problems. This is a solution that would benefit taxpayers, low income and uninsured dental patients, and the government all at the same time!

Occupation:: Student

Well I guess I should start with I’m a 22 yr old college student. I need dentures, checked for ovarian cysts, and a few other problems. My mom has needed a hysterectomy for years and can’t get it done because she can’t get medical insurance. This is the problem with our medicaid system: unless ur an elder or pregnant they will not give u help to get a medical card.

Occupation:: disabled horse trainer

If you are receiving Medicaid paid home health care in Boundary County Idaho your rights to dignity, privacy of your health information and your right to remain in your own home are not rights anymore. You have to plead and beg to get agencies to send out caregivers and then the caregiver can be pulled on a day’s notice with no plan in place to get a new one to your home. Meanwhile all other area agencies are alerted that you are the problem. The feces and urine that they have left you lying in are attributed to your pets and they can’t send in their caregivers safely.They can make allegations that will keep you from receiving any care from anybody for a month or more and they do not have to substantiate their allegations to MEDICAID or anyone else. Elder abuse is not even in the white or yellow pages. It is easier to stop animal abuse than it is to stop homecare agencies from slandering, libeling and neglecting old folks up here. I had an agency claim falsely that I am dumping raw sewage under my mobile home. This is not only a lie, but it isn’t even mentioned in their letter denying me services so I can’t sue them for libel. They told my case manager this was the problem. They told me my home was full of animal feces and urine, also untrue.

Occupation:: Medical Assistant

I had a hysterectomy for uterine cancer in Jan 2010. The surgeon perforated my bowel. I ended up going back to the hospital two days later and that is the last time I remember anything until April. I had went septic, ended up in a coma, on the vent, all my organs failed. I had to learn how to eat, walk and breath on my own! I went to three atty’s to sue this doctor but no one would touch it. I now have all these medical bills that I can not pay. I feel in America why can’t the surgeon be liable to pay for the extra medical bills that I have to pay. I was out of work for eight months my short term disability ran out. I just had surgery again for repair of my abdomen two weeks ago. I feel like the walking dead!

While I was in the hospital fighting for my life my mother became paralyzed from the waist down. She was 84. Mom could not get any help from Medicare or qualify for Medicaid so I paid on my credit cards $23,000.00 for two months care for her since I could not take care of her. I could not pay any longer. She ended up in the hospital and went to a nursing home which paid for her for 100 days only then they kicked her out! I had to scrap up more money until she could get on Medicaid with another nursing home. Now the nursing home that kicked her out is suing me for the amount mom could not pay for $25,000.00. In The state of Ohio children are responsible for indigent parents. Only in America could this happen. If I were in Canada at least my Medical bills would have been paid. I do not know how they take care of their elderly but I am sure it is better than they do in America and kick you out on the street if you can not pay. The last nursing home my mother was at was a nightmare. She had tumors on her spine that was inoperable and she was in terrific pain. The pharmacy at the nursing home ran out of her morphine for three days! She had a stage 4 bed sore because they did not turn her. I fought the whole time she was in there. They did not bring her meals sometime and she would call me to bring her something to eat. I could go on and on what they did not do. But the last couple of months I had Hospice come in and she was treated like a queen. If you do not have people to help you ( some family member etc ), you are going to die sooner than you think in America!

Occupation:: Customer Service Supervisor

I currently have private health insurance with a health care company who I have been employed by for 10+ yrs. After two years of appeals and negotiations my insurance finally agreed to approve a neck fusion. Not only did they take so long to make a decision they also denied claims submitted by my specialist for authorized services ( I appealed this as well). I have been in a great deal of pain and also have had numbness and tingling just waiting for approval of my surgery. The surgery was finally approved during the holidays but unfortunately MD was not able to perform the surgery until the new year and they also mentioned to me since the insurance took so long I needed a new MRI (more money out of pocket). I also have a huge deductible that I pay out of pocket, that MD’s office said I would also have to pay this up front before the surgery. When I called to schedule the MRI and my surgery I was informed by my MD’s office that I have been in care with for 12+ years that they were no longer contracted with my employer/Insurance and I would need to find a new provider. This is devastating to me and so unfair! To think of all the time, effort and money I have spent to have to start all over. I pay for my insurance! Where are my rights!? Who cares about my health? Please help!

Occupation:: Freelance Audio Video Tech

I’m a Veteran who served 7 years in the Army. I got of the service in 1997 and went to flight school. Worked hard to gain experience to get into the airlines. Got furloughed from the first one a week after 911, went to the next and the cost of healthcare for my wife and I was nearly half of my $25,000 a year earnings. Got furloughed from airline number 2 when they went bankrupt. The cobra option was almost twice what it had been. How is it that you get $125 a week for unemployment but the premium for healthcare is $400 a month. Fortunately my wife’s job took care of that till I got on with another airline a couple years later after. But the low eventually forced me out of the airlines and my wife lost her job in a mass corporate downsizing. Now we are both freelancers and for the first time in our lives, have no coverage. This is after having paid thousands of dollars a year for years to make the taker even more able to take.

We recently looked into high deductible plans and were quoted with premiums of $350 a month with a $10,000 deductible. That is what I consider to be prohibitively expensive. I got an idea, everyone stop paying them tomorrow. They’ll be begging for business when the recession finally hits them.

If you make $25,000 a year, pay 12($400) = $4800 bucks a year in health insurance, 12($1,000) =$12,000 in rent, Taxes of $2,400 a year in taxes (half of the cost of insurance coverage if you don’t go to the doctor even one time). 12($200) = $2,400 a year for car insurance so you can get to work, (if you are fortunate enough to have a car and a job), you are left with a grand total of $2,800. Now divide that by 52 and you find that there is only $52 a week to eat. There are a lot of other expenses that haven’t even began to be added. These are just the basic requirements to operate within the modern world. If you can’t meet these, you are out on your butt in a hurry.

If you have a co-pay of $20 for a visit to the doctor, are you going to go to the doctor, or are you going to eat? But remember, you have already paid the medical industry nearly over 20% of your money for the year. And now, you are in a position where you must pay nearly 50% of your last money in order to talk to a Doctor for a few minutes. People, we are all going to die. The idea of healthcare has been around for less than 100 years, and in that time, they have lobbied to take every last dime they can prior to taking your temperature. And if you miss one single payment because you get sick, hurt, downsized, or whatever, your right to health is instantly revoked.

My final point, they have a new thing called HSA (Health Savings Account). But to be eligible for one, you must be enrolled in a high deductible health insurance plan. (Remember, I was offered a great deal at only $350 a month.)

Let me get this straight. In order for me to even begin get a tax break from the government for saving up my own money to pay for doctor bills, I must first pay any money that I could possibly allocate to saving to a health insurance company that won’t cover any of my medical expenses until I pay the first $10,000.

My suggestion. We all stop paying them tomorrow morning. Go to your employer and ask what they are paying for your healthcare. Ask them to put 75% of that into a savings account for when you actually need to see a doctor and invest the other 25% back into the business by giving it to you in stock options or some kind of creative win-win situation. Imagine then, what would happen when more than half the doctors in the country suddenly lost their free ride. Any you’re all still worrying about our tax dollars helping poor people. The medical industry costs you far more than taxes do. And write to your congressman asking why you can’t have a health savings account.

Occupation:: Maintenance

In the state of Colorado people who have health insurance are forced to pay for people who don’t have it. “Cover Colorado” the program was designed to help people who cannot afford health insurance. The insurance rates for this program are higher than if they were to go to a regular insurance company. How is it that a “non – profit org” funded by the state mandated by the state cost more than a private insurance company? Why am I forced to pay for it? The fees for this program are going up every year. And nobody is being helped except the people running the program. Please help me understand?

Occupation:: Disabled, employed part-time

I became disabled after a doctor messed up while putting a pacemaker in. This apparently wasn’t usual procedure and I also have congestive heart failure that we couldn’t find treatment for for 2 years or so. I, during this time, developed a muscle disease as well. I fell into depression while trying to be a wife and mother of three busy children, since I just couldn’t keep up anymore. I had been very active. I slept for 20 hours a day during the years the heart failure wouldn’t respond to meds. I was, later approved to receive SS benefits, though I really just needed the health coverage at the time (we had been paying nearing 800.00 per month for health insurance and copays, at least monthly, for Dr visits and 300.00 per month, at one time, for meds that finally allowed me to have enough energy to work part time. My husband became overwhelmed and depressed and turned to drugs, without my knowledge, and life became unbearable. His mind was affected and as soon as the children graduated high school it was time to find another place to live. The drugs had made him do things that frightened me and when he refused to get treatment, I left. This past spring, only a couple of weeks after I left, I was informed that I would not receive SS benefits any longer. Since the job that I was working paid a bit higher wage than I had and I met some amt of hours I needed to prove I was not disabled, I simply didn’t qualify any longer. Since the position is a seasonal position I still have 5 months with no pay and my now ex-husband was required to pay the health insurance premium until the end of the year-today. Tomorrow I have no health insurance since I cannot afford to pay the Medicare premium. I will, then, not be able to have my check-ups or buy my medicine. I am only able to earn enough to pay my expenses today and therefore can’t even see myself finding a decent person to share my life with, when ready, because all that I am reading says that you need a net worth for anyone to be interested. I, right now, earn just above level or income to get anyone to even look things over for me, and apparently my medicines do not count toward this. I likely will end up homeless this summer. With no health care and no ability to buy medicine. Funny that it is thought that I have enough income even though I have to spread the earnings out over a year. I am a tad older, have a disability and with this economy, have had difficulties finding a job in the first place. This is frightening for me, but nobody cares…seems they are trying to just let the ill disappear.