Margie's Blog: Uninsured in California

The latest entries in this blog

Introduction to this blog

Because I am uninsured myself, and because I couldn't find any other blogs detailing the personal experience of being uninsured, I decided to create my own blog. This is it!

First: who am I and how is my health?

I am 63 years old, exactly one and a half years too young for Medicare. My health is excellent; I don't smoke or drink (any more!) and I don't have unprotected sex. Or any other kind currently! I have a great immune system, I take vitamin supplements and yearly flu shots, and I exercise religiously. I am overweight but not obese, and I eat a pretty healthy diet. I have had the usual bladder and yeast infections, but not for decades, and I always had the requisite exams, until 2005 when I became uninsured.

So how did I get uninsured?

After over twenty-five years of working as a help desk technician and corporate trainer, I lost a great, high paying job with benefits in 2000. This job went away in the high-tech crash in Silicon Valley. Literally. It went to Bangalore, along with tens of thousands of similar jobs. When it became obvious that these jobs weren't coming back any time soon, I re-upped my teaching credential and sent resumes to school districts all over Califonria. I got a job in Maryville, teaching ROP data processing in high school. But after a year and a half, Leave No Child Behind and the need for budget cutting took that job as well... I found a job in Sacramento as a web support/tech training professional, but after two years I was once more without work. I found that no one is eager to hire 6o-somethings, except for part-time work. I got lots of interviews, but you could see the young people who were interviewing lose interest when they realized I was not a kid. So now I do occasional temp work and teaching college classes, both of which don't provide benefits, and I work for Gray Panthers part time. No benefits, no health care. There are 7 million of us in Califonria, and 47 million in the US. I spend much of my time advocating for a Single Payer plan like Sheila Kuehl's SB840 in California, or HR 676 at the federal level. I would have joined this fight anyway, but it takes on a greater urgency when you know personally how it feels to have no access to medical care. Most of the time I just go about my business, but there are times when I really am disturbed, upset, or depressed.

Anti-Depressants anyone?

Years ago, I was prescribed Zoloft when I lost a job and had the love of my life pass away at about the same time. I recovered, but I also realized that my panic attacks, from which I had suffered for years, were gone. So I continued on the medication and while I was at my last job, on Kaiser, I continued to take it. This is still my only medical issue.

Retail Medical Clinics (Winter '06)

I read in the Sacramento Bee that some Rite-Aid pharmacies had retail health clinics on site. So I went to one. They notified me, after I paid $65 for the visit, that they were not allowed to prescribe the one medication I needed. They did take my temperature and blood pressure, though, and I suppose it is just possible that they could have detected a flu as well. Though at that time I didn't have one.

Double-vision/Urgent Care (Summer '06)

One day I was experiencing what seemed to me to be mild double-vision. I went to a nearly urgent medical clinic. They weighed me, gave me a cursory eye check, and then told me (urgently, or so it seemed to me) that my double vision could only be a symptom of something they couldn't treat or even diagnose, and they gave me back my check and told me to go away. I read that as "you have something really bad so you need to go away because you have no insurance."

My awful cough: winter 2007

In the winter of 2007 I had a bout of cold or flu, not too sure which, in spite of having a flu shot. (You can get flu shots for $10 at local senior centers, and I did, but still...) It wasn't bad, but it left me with a really bad cough or bronchitis, which got worse and worse. Finally, I was very panicky and needed to do something.

I had been on Kaiser before I lost my job, so I called them hoping they might at least talk with me.

Nope!

At this point I trusted neither retail clinics nor urgent care clinics, so I decided to call the doctor I had seen while I lived in Yuba City, and I called to make an appointment. I was told that the visit would cost $125, cash up front, but that she would see me.

When I got there, an hour drive, the receptionist told me that the doctor did not accept uninsured patients. I was upset, and asked why they couldn't have told me before I drove all the way from Sacramento to Yuba City. At that point the doctor saw and recognized me, and told me to come in. She prescribed an antibiotic for the cough and also gave me a one year prescription for sertraline, the generic of Zoloft. (This had been available for years from other countries, but only recently in this country.) She sent me to a pharmacy that she assured me would be the best rate. I went and filled the antibiotic, but when I was quoted $156 for 30 tablets, I passed. I got better, and when I got home, I spent hours researching on the web. I ended up with a Canadian pharmacy, at $122 for 90 tablets. For the past year, that has been all the meds I needed. But of course, the year is now over....

Online Advice (May '08)

Years ago, I joined an online support group for Multiple Myeloma patients. I did this because I had a dear friend who had been recently diagnosed, and I wanted to educate myself, my friend and her husband and find a source of support. This group turned out to be magnificent, and I continue to read items from the group, though my friend only rarely used the site and passed away this year.

My comments to the group re healthcare in the US (May 7 2008):

I am very sure that the US has the best medical care possible for those who have terrific insurance or lots of money. I am unfortunately uninsured, so like 16% of our citizens, I am not eligible for any of it. I work three part-time jobs to survive, and none of them provides benefits. I am 63, that awkward age between when people will hire me and when Medicare will kick in.

I just have to eat well, exercise, and pray that nothing awful happens to my health. Note that the very poor do have Medicaid, it is the working poor and now the middle class which is now suffering.

My brother moved to Germany years ago and is now a citizen. He can't understand why I stay here and sometimes I really want to leave a country which doesn't care about me. Then I just get busy. I belong to Gray Panthers (Our website is www.gpcal.org.), Older womens's League, CARA and Healthcare for All, all organizations that work to educate Americans about our need for single-payer healthcare.

And of course we all know that the 47 million of Americans who are uninsured does not include the huge numbers who are under-insured.

My friend Dona, who had multiple Myeloma and who was the reason I got into this list, died two months ago. She was unemployed when she was diagnosed, and had to sell her house to pay for treatments until the two year wait period to receive Medicare disability insurance kicked in.

It is just hard for those of us who can't partake of the feast of medical possibilities that surround us to keep our spirits up. (I take Zoloft, at fully my own cost of course, and I had an interesting sales call recently from Blue Cross, which turned sour when they found out my age and they told me outright that depression was a pre-existing condition so would render me uninsurable. I told her that I was depressed because I couldn't get medical care. She didn't laugh.)

When the online conversation turned to medication costs (and Multiple Myeloma med costs are totally incredible.. in this country!) I said I was having trouble with sertaline. As is often the case, someone there had a solution... it's available much cheaper at Costco. I went to the Costco site and found out to my amazement they not only have a special medication plan for uninsured people, but my med was one of the ones covered. I went in immediately and signed up, then raced home to call the doctor to get a refill on the prescription.

Back to my Yuba City doctor: End of an Illusion (May '08)

I spoke with the receptionist, and asked to have the Dr. call me. She grilled me as to why, and I told her the truth. She said that I would need to come in for an office visit. I replied that that seemed unnecessary since I was uninsured and could barely afford the meds, let alone the cash for the office visit and the cost of gas to get there and back, no longer an incidental expense. I said, "Doctor X knows about my situation, and I would like to speak with her." I left my number and later, got a return call from another person, not the doctor. I made the same requests and got the same response.

I must say I was just enraged, as I still am. They get you coming and going! Now that I can afford the meds, the doctor is out of my range! There is no compromise, they are not going to listen to me or even talk to me! I first was angry with the two women I talked to, but I realized soon that they are only following orders from the Doctor. They are paid to stonewall, and all they all care about is the money. "First do no harm?" I don't think so!

After I had a long cry, I realized that I am just totally frustrated. And that there are millions of us going through this or worse. How much worse if I had a serious medical emergency? or even worse, if it were my child?

Most of the time I take things in stride. Today I can't.

May 13, 2008

I sent out the link to this blog and have received numerous responses, all helpful and all positive! I am grateful today for good health, and most of all, for terrific friends.

But why is all this hitting me so hard?

First, of course, is the gut-wrenching fear of the unknown. I am frightened that something will happen to my health. And, of course, sooner or later it will. Nobody lives forever. I wonder if there is any way to quantify the effects of this fear on our health?

I know that I am shocked by the situation I am in. It doesn't much help that there are 7 million more like me in California, or 47 million in the nation as a whole. And it doesn't much help to remember that a person like me would not be in this predicament in any other developed country. Although I have always known our healthcare system was a mess, I never really believed this would happen to ME!

I remember the comfort I had as a child in always knowing that Dr. Goldberg was right down the street and would come to see us whenever we needed him. I never questioned him and I never questioned that we would all be taken care of. I always knew that this was the best country in the world, that doctors cared about their patients, and that I would be OK. That little kid that still lives in me is just shocked and outraged that we have gone so wrong. We now live in a country that denies healthcare to a huge number of its citizens, and does so still believeing we are a "Christian" nation.

Thank God for Healthcare for all, for Gray Panthers, CARA, OWL, and all the other groups I am part of and which work their hearts out for a solution! The key to mental health is working for change!

Margie

The latest entry to this blog

May 19

So today it has been a little over two weeks since I ran out of my sertraline. I was wihtout it a couple of years agao, so I more or less know what to expect. I feel a little dizzy from time to time, and I am way more anxious. I also notice that I am having real trouble sleeping. I used to have panic attacks when driving , but Zoloft took care of that. I had to drive to Chico this weekend, almot 100 miles, and I was concerned. It turned out just fine.

What I notice most is that I have been crying a lot more. Small trails that I used to take it stride are now causeing me to feel rage, followed by tears. This is really annoying. In addition, I can feel that my concentration is not as good as it was.

I have to find a doctor nearby who will take uninsured patients. I can;'t use the dr. in Yuba City, partly becasue the trip itself would cost around $50 just for the gas. I feel really frustrated, pulctuated by moments of rage.

I have contacted some doctors I know who are proponents of single-payer health care. My hope is that I can find someone who will work with me until Medicare kicks in. Oct. 2009. So how's that going to work for me?

Margie

Medicare Part D/Healthcare Reform Grant and Program:

Contact Margie (916) 921-5008 or margiemetz@hotmail.com

This program and this website operate under a grant from the California Wellness Foundation (http://www.tcwf.org/)