Health Insurance is a Contradiction
I have health insurance through my employer that I pay into. It is deducted from my paycheck bi-monthly. Contrary to popular belief, healthcare workers do not automatically get great or free healthcare benefits.
This where the insurance fun starts.
I picked the cheapest insurance plan my employer offered due to monthly household and personal bills. It’s expensive to live on the west coast compared to the Midwest where I lived prior. I never considered I would need to use my insurance for anything serious. I exercised regularly and ate a healthy diet. Other than a couple of back flare ups and a few colds, I’d been pretty healthy since moving out to Washington.
Truth be told, I tried hard not to use the insurance because of my seriously high deductible. Up to this point I was using my HSA left over from a previous job for minor medical expenses, such as eye healthcare not covered by insurance.
So, back to my post-COVID treatment.
Over a period of 3 months, I went through the doctor prescribed tests. It took 3 months due to insurance denying the stress echocardiogram, which was ordered by the doctor who read my EKG as abnormal. I was suspected of having an anterior wall infarct, otherwise known as a heart attack.
By the way, I wasn’t even a little surprised based on the symptoms I had experienced over the previous year having COVID. Plus, I had read about COVID induced blood clots causing heart attacks and strokes.
My health insurance company decided it knew more than an MD and a reliable test result. I was told on the day I arrived for my stress echo that the test had been denied, after I had already scheduled time off from work for the 2-hour appointment. I was incensed, but the front desk associate told me I WAS approved for the heart monitor prescribed. So that day I was fitted and instructed in the use of my 30-day heart monitor.
After 30 days of 24/7 electrode wear (except showers) causing significant skin irritation, plus the general annoyance of a machine being attached to you every day for a month, the insurance company finally authorized the stress echo. Awesome, but that meant more time off work and another trip to Cardiology.
I rocked the stress echo, according to my technicians. Made it to level 4! Always an athlete at heart. Sigh…
Thankfully, the stress test on the treadmill with echocardiogram showed my heart was currently healthy. The cardiologist told me to keep doing what I was doing; rehabbing myself essentially, exercising to increase my strength and endurance. So since he cleared me, I would just ignore the shortness of breath and irregular feeling heart rate I felt every time I exercised and keep pressing on.
Then an odd thing happened, although I suppose that might be redundant regarding COVID related things.
Several weeks after my 2nd vaccine, I noticed many of my post COVID symptoms had lessened. This was not an anomaly, as other long haulers had reported they responded the same way. I was grateful and hopeful, even though I still was not back to pre-COVID me.
Then the medical bills began to roll in.
I was astounded at the amounts I was responsible for after my insurance paid their part. I used my HSA month after month. The bills just kept coming. Even with the 30% discount offered by the insurance company for COVID related expenses, I did not have enough to cover the remaining balances on each statement.
I made multiple phone calls and crafted several emails to the hospital billing office, explaining I was paying what I was able to in order to chip away at the total balance. Feeling demoralized that I worked full time and had health insurance, but I couldn’t pay the bills in full once my HSA was exhausted. Plus, I still owed over $2000, after paying over $3000 out of pocket. I eventually resigned to go on a payment plan they offered, because their system would continue to alert me through texts, emails, and voicemails otherwise.
All this difficulty because of an illness I contracted by working at my job as expected during a pandemic. My “essential worker”, health care job. Not sure which part of that is a more contradictory statement about the state of our current healthcare system.
An interesting turn of events.
While researching facts and timelines for this piece, I found there was a new law signed by Gov. Inslee on May 21, 2021, to cover/reimburse healthcare and frontline workers who became sick while working.
https://www.lni.wa.gov/agency/outreach/common-questions-about-presumptive-coverage-for-health-care-and-frontline-workers
Neither the hospital billing office nor my insurance company ever mentioned this might be a potential option to assist with medical expenses. Maybe they didn’t know I was a healthcare worker. Except that I am sure it’s documented throughout my chart as well as on my profile, beside the fact that all my medical appointments I was billed for at that point except one were COVID related. The disconnect in healthcare is real.
I plan to reach out to Washington State and inquire if I’m eligible for assistance. Grateful for the Governor being so proactive and reactive throughout this pandemic.
A final thought regarding this whole experience.
I feel that the pandemic must be a turning point in healthcare. As healthcare providers we must demand better benefits and even hazard pay any time there are extraordinary factors at hand.
Our health and safety are just as important as the patients we care for.
It seems like a natural extension that health insurance companies be at the forefront of improving care for health providers, instead of a hinderance and added stressor during and recovering from illness.
It’s an understatement that the healthcare system in the US needs a reboot. Maybe healthcare providers can be the catalyst.
