Well here's what my family's been through as far as health care goes, I think it's fairly typical.
In March my 53 year old sister came down with multiple sclerosis (MS). On one Friday night she went to bed feeling fine, on Saturday morning her legs and left arm were no longer functioning correctly. She thought she was having a stroke, so she went to the emergency room. They decided she was having "trans ischemic attacks" and they sent her home. She got worse and went back to the hospital the next day. They decided to do more tests. These included lots of blood work, MRI etc. Still no diagnosis and they sent her home. She got "worser." So she went back and they did a spinal tap and other tests. Finally, four weeks later she got her diagnosis the delay in diagnosis caused a delay in treatment with high power steroids which are known for greatly reducing flairs and limiting damage from MS. The doctor, a recent graduate, "just didn't feel comfortable" making an MS diagnosis. Now comes the good part. The insurance company decided that nobody can just come down with MS, so she must have had a pre-existing condition therefore she, they said, was entirely responsible for the $120, 000 in medical test. Their rationale was that since she had only been under that plan for nine months or so, she must have had MS brewing inside much longer, therefore, they weren't gonna pay. So, my sister, who is still quite resourceful - even with the severe cognitive impairments caused by MS - had to call every health care insurer she has ever had with every employer she had ever had, and have them fax all her insurance records to the current insurer. After that, they decided to pay. I believe they thought she was just too impaired to fight back. The next little treat is the private disability insurance. After "proving" she was disabled by getting certified by three separate doctors mind you this is a women who cannot walk or lift her left arm they decided to pay her. So the formula was 60% of the average of the last two years's salary excluding overtime and bonuses. They told her she was eligible for $1800 dollars a month and she had better apply for early social security within three months or they would cut her off. That's $1800 for room and board, food, medicine and medical bills. One of her prescriptions is $50,000 dollars a year btw. As a result of that mix-up she has not paid her mortgage since April and her home is already gone. When my eighty-six year old dad looked at her paperwork, he instantly realized they were only giving her 40% of her salary. So, their brilliant accountant with all their computers just could get that calculation right? Now, they have said that they cannot fix this problem until next November. In the meantime her disability insurer is threatening to cut her off if she doesn't get her Social Security started. The average wait time to get early SSI is 2.5 years. When I see these people on TV screaming about "ObamaCare", I think they must not have ever had to deal with a private insurer. The word "evil" comes to mind. The entire system is very, very broken.
