Today, you and your family are happy, healthy, and doing fine, then BOOM. disaster strikes and you discover that you or your child has a life-threatening medical condition. But that’s okay. You’re covered by health insurance … or so you think.
Having no medical coverage is bad enough, but I’ll bet you didn’t know there are at least three other reasons why you could be denied a life-saving organ transplant and left to die. Beware if you, your partner, or your child happens to be (1) Disabled; (2) Bad at paperwork and details or even the teensiest bit short on this month’s payment, like say, 26 cents; or (3) Have a history of being Black “non-compliant” that makes the Powers-That-Be think you might not adhere to your doctor’s recommended treatment plan
You’d think that Obamacare’s opponents would be on their best behavior, instead of making America’s bloated, inefficient, for-profit healthcare system look as evil as possible … at least for as long as they hope to rip out every single provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act root and branch. Alas, for them, they’re simply incapable of concealing their true nature and not being evil.
1. You’re disabled
You know things have gotten really bad when a Republican state governor signs a bill prohibiting hospitals from denying organ transplants to disabled people — as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie did in back in July. According to Susan K. Livio from the (N.J.) Star-Ledger, then-three-year-old (shown above) Amelia Rivera’s doctor refused to consider her for a kidney transplant because she has Wolf-Hirschorn Syndrome — a developmental disability. The bill was passed in response to public outcry over the case.? Back in 2012, Susan Donaldson James from ABC News reported that over 37,000 people signed a petition after Amelia’s mother, Chrissy Rivera — a teacher and mother of two older children — wrote about her experience in her blog.
S1456 sponsor, N.J. Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) stated:
People with developmental disabilities should not be treated as second-class citizens. Their disabilities do not make them any less human or worthy of respect and common decency. They should be afforded the same rights as anyone would want when entering a hospital.
While doctors can still consider disabilities from a medical standpoint regarding the potential success or failure of a transplant, they cannot deny a transplant based solely on a disability. Livio now reports that the Riveras are now undergoing tests to prepare the now-five-year-old girl “to receive her mother’s kidney.” Let’s all hope the tests go well, and that their insurance covers the costs, because items number two and three show that America’s ‘healthcare’ industry will do anything possible to avoid providing medical care when their customers need it.
2. You’re short 26 cents
If you or a loved one is in bad health, you’d better pay attention to every single little detail. Your health insurer will use even the slightest excuse to toss you like a hot potato, like being 26 cents short.
Karen Price Mueller from The (N.J.) Star-Ledger reported on August 12 that a 33-year-old father of three was almost left to die when his insurance company denied him a scheduled bone marrow transplant. Sergio Branco (shown above) was being treated for Leukemia when he got laid off from his job as a truck driver immediately after his legally required paid medical leave ran out. Although Branco and his family struggled to maintain his health insurance plan via COBRA — the only (and hideously expensive) option available for continuing health coverage after losing your job — the insurance company cancelled his policy because his first payment was 26 cents short. Talk about kicking a man when he’s down.
It’s bad enough that the insurance company now charges Branco a whopping $518 per month — easily a month’s worth of groceries for a family of five — for his policy now that his company has kicked him to the curb. Imagine how Branco must have felt when his hospital said there was a problem with his treatment and scheduled bone marrow transplant due to lack of insurance coverage.
Apparently, Branco’s wife Mara had accidentally sent a check for $518.00 instead of $518.26. After much haggling with the insurance company, the Department of Labor, and the couple’s bank, Branco was reinstated and can go ahead with his scheduled transplant for August 16. But, jeez, stories like this make you wonder what kind of person would cancel the policy instead of just digging a penny, two dimes, and a nickel out from between their seat cushions and saving this family a lot of stress. I mean, someone had to click on that “denied” box.
3. You are black have a “history of non-compliance”
Is “non-compliance” the new black? Things are looking more and more that way, as an Atlanta, Georgia hospital refused to give 15-year-old Anthony Stokes (shown above) a heart transplant because of his “low grades” and “trouble with the law.” This, in spite of the fact that the boy has less than six months to live and that his mother, Melencia Hamilton, told WSBTV Channel 2’s Tony Thomas that a transplant “is the only fix for her son’s enlarged heart.” Gee, this wouldn’t have anything to do with Stokes’ race, would it? Because, of course, white teenagers never get bad grades or do anything illegal.
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s spokeswoman, Patty Gregory, insists that they’re just following whatever rules are set by the Grand Poobahs of Organ Transplants:
The well-being of our patients is always our first priority. We are continuing to work with this family and looking at all options regarding this patient’s health care. We follow very specific criteria in determining eligibility for a transplant of any kind.
Tara Culp-Ressler from Think Progress adds that civil rights groups “are beginning to take up Anthony’s cause, saying a child’s past shouldn’t have anything to do with the medical care they receive.” Christine Young Brown, president of the Newton Rockdale County Southern Christian Leadership Conference told CBS Atlanta:
He’s been given a death sentence because of a broad and vague excuse of non-compliance. There was nothing specific in that decision. Just non-compliance.
Culp-Ressler adds:
Regardless of Anthony’s specific past, his story fits into a larger pattern of racially-motivated skepticism about young black men. The routine criminalization of black youth ? thanks in large part to the so-called ?school-to-prison pipeline,? which funnels a disproportionate number of black teens into the justice system for minor infractions ? ensures that teens like Anthony are often seen as threats. And once society labels those kids as criminal, suspect, or ?non-compliant,? their lives are typically considered to have less value.
Seriously, if Stokes and his mother were white, would there even be any question of this family complying with the hospital’s treatment recommendations? Jeez, I suppose we should count our blessings that Stokes wasn’t wearing a hoodie while his physician or nurse was packing heat.
4. You’re uninsured
Despite significant improvements over the past couple of years, Jeffrey Young from the Huffington Post reported back in March that a January 2013 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey found that more than 45 million Americans lacked health insurance in 2012.
Furthermore, 57.5 million said they had been uninsured within a year of being polled. Yet, despite all of these folks still lacking medical coverage, Sy Mukherjee from Think Progress reports that Texas, Arizona, Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wyoming still refuse to enforce Obamacare’s most popular provisions in their states — like the ban on disqualifying people for coverage based on disabilities and pre-existing conditions. And — surprise — all five states have GOP-led legislatures, who knew? Of course, any country that’s willing to treat their own citizens so poorly is bound to treat their undocumented workers even worse.
Ellyn Fortino from Progress Illinois reports that 25-year-old Sarai Rodriguez — an undocumented worker from Mexico — died last Friday because she could not obtain a desperately needed liver transplant from Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Dozens of family, friends, and activists gathered outside of the complex to honor Rodriguez’s memory and camped out overnight. These well-wishers join a band of activists who launched a 10-day hunger strike to demand justice for the uninsured — particularly one of our most vulnerable populations, our undocumented and uninsured residents:
Twenty people, including some of the immigrants who were denied kidney and liver transplants, went on a 10-day hunger strike that began July 29 demanding administrators at Advocate Christ Medical Center, Northwestern and the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center have meetings with them.
The hunger strikers disbanded after hospital officials made vague promises of meeting with them concerning treatment for their undocumented patients:
Victoria Rodriguez, Sarai’s mother, said her daughter was denied a liver transplant back in March by Northwestern Memorial Hospital because she was uninsured and could not pay for the procedure. Sarai needed half of her liver transplanted, which was projected to cost between $200,000 and $500,000, Victoria said. That figure did not include the costs of medicine and the follow-up care that would be needed after the procedure.
The hospital scheduled an appointment for Sarai on September 5th. Alas, that proved to be too little, and too late for the Rodriguez family.
Edited and Published by: Jeromie Williams.
