Back at my first cancer adventure in 1981, my father advised me never to let my Blue Cross health insurance lapse because going forward with a pre-existing condition, I could always lose my health insurance. And that was something I could not afford. For quite a few years, until MA changed the law regarding pre-existing conditions, I would often pay for my own private health insurance to ensure I never lost Blue Cross. Even if my employer was offering another plan, I would pay for my own. That wasn't cheap.
Then I had more medical adventures and got to know the surgery department and ER a few more times. I kept my Blue Cross insurance and kept on paying. From time to time I would have a job which offered Blue Cross insurance. Then the law changed and I could stop that.
In the past 7 years since my second cancer adventure, I average a minimum of 50 doctor appointments each year. We max out our out of pocket coverage each year as well. One year a friend convinced to try to keep track of what insurance paid vs what I paid. No contest. I paid a tiny portion of the hundreds of thousands paid by the insurer.
So I am verification of a new study showing that after cancer, patients face rising costs of health care. All of a sudden you get more doctors and more appointments and everything needs to be checked because of your medical history, blah, blah, blah. And there are all the health issues caused by side effects of treatment that may never go away. The lost productivity costs because you have to go to the (damn) doctor or don't feel well enough to work that day. The list goes on.
But now it looks like a cancer diagnosis is financially as well as emotionally and physically taxing.
No comments:
Post a Comment