Let's Give It a Try

Well hello blog world. Let me get right into the reason I have created this blog. I want to give a voice to all people that have had bad experience(s) with private health insurance. I know there is a lot of news out there right now about healthcare reform. I don't feel enough time is being given to the people that have had what people would call "private insurance nightmares." This could be anything from being denied coverage or enrollment when you needed it to having a claim denied that put you in monetary straits.

Before I get into my story of how my insurance failed me the one time I needed it, feel free to email me your story at yourinsurancenightmares@gmail.com. I will take all emails pertaining to this issue and cut and paste them right here on this blog. I understand if you do not want to leave your name, but please include the following.

1. Insurance company's name
2. Date of your problem (general time is fine)
3. What the problem was
4. What your insurance company's excuse was
5. Problems it has caused
6. Anything else you feel is important to the story

Note: Please be truthful when you do this. Do not make a story up as it will hurt the cause more than help!

Once I get some stories on here, I will be emailing the link to this site to U.S. Senators and Representatives.

A lot of problems occur when people actually have health insurance. Here is my case:

When I was 24, I was mountain biking in Moab, Utah. On my first ride, I got so severely dehydrated that I couldn't finish the ride and had to be rushed to the emergency room with cramping all over my body. It didn't take long for them to figure out that I was in kidney failure (not acute). I took three fluid IV bags within an hour and was better. A few weeks later, I got a bill from the hospital for nearly $5,000. I called the hospital and asked what my insurance had done about it and they said they couldn't tell, but they had filed it. Shortly after, I got my explination of benefits, which basically told me that the entire bill was my responsibility. I called the insurance company to ask why. The best they could tell me was that I was out of network (I live in Louisiana), and my plan didn't cover this. I have since shredded all the materials and can't remember what company this was. I can tell you that it was a PPO that I chose through my employer, the Rapides Parish School Board, and the year was 2003. To make a long story short, I went back and forth over several calls with the insurance company, but with no success. The hospital was great about it, cut 20% off the bill and put me on a payment plan. To pay for it, I pulled my retirement out of the state of Louisiana system because I was changing jobs into the private sector.

I know this amount of money may seem trivial to some people, but the point is, I had insurance and the one time I made a claim, they did nothing. I did the math and even if they would have paid the entire bill, they would have made nearly $1,500 (what my employer and myself had paid in) off me since I was going off their insurance and would make no more claims to them.

People need to realize that even though they have health insurance, they could be a victim like this at any time. I was lucky the bill was not $50,000, or any amount that I would not have had the means to pay. Unfortunately this happens all too often to people.

I want to hear your story. True healthcare reform cannot happen if these kinds of things are allowed to continue! I will be back later with some statistics that a lot of people don't know about.