Category Archives: health insurance

Education, Disrupted: An Update

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This past May I wrote about the challenges college students with chronic illness face in terms of achieving their goals and staying enrolled. I also wrote about the great work the Chronic Illness Initiative at DePaul University is doing to help students overcome these challenges.

As an update to that post, I’m happy to pass along this news story about Michelle’s Law, a bill passed recently that, according to the Boston Globe “would allow allow seriously ill or injured college students to take up to one year of medical leave without losing their health insurance.”

It’s sadly ironic that in cases like this, students with serious conditions who are trying to treat their illnesses or recover are often penalized by losing the very insurance they need to survive. That’s why this legislation is exciting, promising, and…logical.

Who would have guessed it?

Taking a Look at Healthcare Policy: The McCain Campaign

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In the midst of what has been quite a rollercoaster of a week, I was able to participate in a press call with the McCain campaign that focused on his healthcare proposals. Senior policy advisor Doug Holtz-Eakin and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina answered questions from journalists and bloggers about his policies, which provide an interesting alternative to the talk of universal healthcare dominating the Democratic contest.

There are plenty of economic and political analyses of the McCain healthcare platform out there, so what I’m attempting to do is look at the key policies of the candidates that resonate most with my perspective: someone with multiple chronic conditions whose problem isn’t lack of insurance per se, but lack of confidence in my insurance and lack of the comprehensive coverage I used to have.

Overall, I like a lot of the central themes of the McCain campaign: we have great technology and innovation so the problem isn’t as much about quality as it is affordability of that care; patients should have more control over their own care and their choice in doctors; healthcare should focus on treatments and outcomes, not tests and procedures; and lastly, that prevention is key (no surprise there).

I can’t argue with any of those points. As always, I’m interested in the “theory into practice” aspect of things. (Who knew the basic distinction so critical in my teaching composition seminar would turn up so often in my health blogging?)

Specifically, the idea of portable health insurance that employees can take from job to job is quite appealing. Health insurance is an inordinately large deal-breaker in potential job opportunities in our world. Not being tied to a job for its health insurance or tied to sub-par health insurance because of the job that comes with it is certainly a refreshing option.

The ability to purchase health insurance outside of employer-sponsored plans through a $5000 tax credit (that this free market competition will drive down costs is a driving force of this policy) also sounds promising in theory. In practice, I worry where this leaves someone with pre-existing serious medical conditions. If I’m to go out into the national market and try to buy a plan, will the “safety net” in place for patients like me actually catch me?

Other aspects of his platform I gravitated to include publishing doctor fees and patient ratings on Internet to weed out the worst providers; encouraging telemedicine; and providing incentives for healthy lifestyle choices, though in reality I’m curious as to how this would actually play out. His team was clear that these would be incentives, not mandates, but in the push for outcome-based medicine, would that line get blurry?

One thing I’d like to know more about is how his push for pharmaceutical reimportation would impact research and innovation for orphan diseases.

In sum, McCain’s policies are an interesting alternative to universal health care—about as different as you could get—and give me a lot to think about. In coming weeks, stay tuned for a closer look at the Democrats’ policies, too—we’re equal opportunity here at A Chronic Dose when it comes to evaluating healthcare platforms. In the interim, for a nonpartisan look at the different candidates’ healthcare policies, check out the Partnership to Fight Chronic Diesase.

Incidental Economics of Illness

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In a freakish turn of events, I dined out recently with two friends and I was the healthy one. (Well, okay, the visibly healthy one, if you must).

My two friends are preternaturally athletic, the type who run marathons and triathlons, who scale mountains on other continents, and generally amaze me with their natural ability and iron work ethic. Yet that night, they were wearing identical walking boots, having each suffered metatarsal injuries of some sort. One was even on crutches.

And there I was, not a sprained ankle, torn ligament, or broken bone to be had. Finally, I got to hold doors open and offer to carry bags for someone else.

Weird.

As our little trio limped down the city street, one my friends commented on the hassle it was being somewhat incapacitated.

“It’s really expensive,” she added, commenting on the number of cabs she’d had to take lately when the walk to public transportation would have been too much for her injured foot.

I nodded vigorously.

She’s right. Now, I realize just how far down on the priorities list this topic is. I know how expensive chronic disease is in terms of productivity and lost wages. I’ve seen Sicko; I know people with health insurance lose their homes and livelihoods, and even their lives. I know many other people do not have insurance, so a broken bone or X-ray or MRI can be a catastrophic cost.

I’m certainly not arguing any of that. But that topic is much larger, more unwieldy and complicated and frustrating, than what I am attempting to focus on here. So with that caveat in mind, shall we?

When you add up all the little expenses that come with being sick, those incidental little things that aren’t neatly categorized like co-pays and deductibles are, it really is costly.

Like my friend, I’ve definitely paid for many, many cabs when I’ve been too broken/adrenally-depleted/infection-ridden or otherwise worn out to take public transportation. I’ve paid tons of exorbitant parking garage fees because I couldn’t walk to a place or knew by the end of the event or appointment I wouldn’t be up to commuting.

Don’t even get me started on the number of non-refundable plane, train, theatre, and concert tickets we’ve lost money on when my health status changed quite rapidly and we had to cancel our plans. (Yes, sometimes people are understanding and work something out with us, but that is not the norm.) And of course there are the projects and jobs I’ve turned down because I’ve gotten too sick or landed in the hospital, but that’s another issue.

Despite our insistence on store brands and the fact we only buy enough for the meals we eat in one week, grocery shopping is more expensive because, frankly, most of the inexpensive food I cannot eat. Now, I do love me fresh produce, and all-natural, gluten-free grains, soymilk, and the $2 GF energy bars I grab to keep in my briefcase as a quick non-perishable snack, but they are by no means inexpensive. I’m sure all of you with various GI issues and dietary restrictions can relate.

Even dining out costs more than it might for the average person at the average restaurant because very often, the only “safe” menu choices beyond a small garden salad are the grilled fish entrée or the steak. No cheap middle of the road burger or sandwich or affordable domestic beer.

Anyway, I could keep listing all the ways illness sucks money out of my pocket, but I realize to even notice these incidentals is a luxury. It means the truly costly parts of life with chronic disease are under control.

It could be a lot worse.

(But I know you’re nodding your head and mentally cataloging your own incidentals list, too. It’s okay.)

Universal Health Care and Primary Care Problems

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So we’ve already established that patients like me are pretty much a primary care physician’s nightmare—complicated histories, hordes of specialists, all sorts of medications and symptoms to monitor. As I wrote a few months ago, though, some of those factors are the very reasons people like me need a good PCP, someone who can help coordinate the moving parts of disease management.

(As an aside, I have yet to find a group that is accepting new patients, but I’m going to renew my search now that a tough winter is over.)

Yet effective preventative medicine is the key to minimizing or even eliminating chronic disease, one of the most expensive and pervasive issues in health care. This is a given, and the logical extension of this is the idea that the more access people have to health care coverage, the better the outcome.

But theory and practice aren’t always as close together as we’d like. For example, here in Massachusetts a universal coverage plan was implemented several months ago. While costs have been significantly greater than previously estimated, a more compelling result is the one referred to in this New York Times article. In looking at the growing gap between urban and rural care, the article went on to posit this:

“Now in Massachusetts, in an unintended consequence of universal coverage, the imbalance is being exacerbated by the state’s new law requiring residents to have health insurance…Since last year, when the landmark law took effect, about 340,000 of Massachusetts’ estimated 600,000 uninsured have gained coverage. Many are now searching for doctors and scheduling appointments for long-deferred care.”

Of course, the fact that 340,000 patients are now covered is an encouraging one. But if one of the main goals of health insurance is to promote preventative medicine, how effective can it be if the patients who have lacked primary care medicine are unable to use their new insurance to see a physician? Or must wait months for an appointment?

Factors behind the primary care drought—lower salaries, educational debt, an aging population that demands more care—were already there. Add to that an influx of patients who all need the same resources, and it’s all too easy to see why doctors and patients alike are feeling the crunch:

“It is a fundamental truth — which we are learning the hard way in Massachusetts — that comprehensive health care reform cannot work without appropriate access to primary care physicians and providers,” Dr. Bruce Auerbach, the president-elect of the Massachusetts Medical Society, told Congress in February.”

Policy and Protest

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I’ll start with the preface that I know I am fortunate to have health insurance. It isn’t the best insurance out there but it isn’t the worst and relatively speaking, I know I don’t have much right to complain.

But.

Obviously when we’re talking about health insurance you know there’s a “but,” right?

I’ve long since accepted that the glory days of my past insurance life are over, the days when my Daily Chest Physiotherapy was covered, you know, daily, and routine doctor visits didn’t cost hundreds of dollars. I use Express Pay for my many refills and pretend not to notice what the amount due actually is, figuring I’ll just deal with the full blast at tax time. I take what I can get.

Still, it’s impossible for me not to get fired up at the state of healthcare, at the exorbitant cost of heavily marketed blockbuster “me-too” drugs, at the futile feeling that preventative care is the most important thing we can be doing but is still not a priority to many. I will return to this line of thought in one moment, rest assured!

Recently, I had my own minor little indignation. I picked up my refills and a generic prescription for allergies/sinus congestion I’ve had since 1996 cost 10 times what it did last month. Now that was an Express Pay bill I couldn’t ignore! I made many phone calls to the insurance company and the prescription benefit people and actually ended up conferencing both parties since their knowledge of what the other was doing was so woefully inaccurate. I found out that as of January 1, the medication was no longer covered, despite the fact that we pay extra each month for “premium” prescription coverage and despite the fact that drug is listed on the company website as the “preferred drug.”

The real kicker? No other drug in that whole family is now covered. At all. Huh? Now, I realize that of all my meds it’s the least serious one. It’s not like they took away my thyroid medicine or my heavy duty antibiotics or my refined nebulizer medications. The world won’t end. But, as I said to the woman on the phone, it doesn’t make much sense. Keeping my sinuses clear means less gunk spreads to my lungs and lodges there, which in turn means less need for massively expensive antibiotics and even more expensive hospital trips.

Go figure.

Anyway, just as I was stewing away at the arbitrary and exhaustive ban of all medicines relating to sinus congestion, I checked my inbox. It just happened to be full of links and resources relevant to my position here—and yes, it really happened this way, as contrived as the timing may seem.

So, back to my main point here: Information is power. For all of you who feel frustrated, who are nursing your own indignations and outrages, who want to know what’s really going on with your healthcare and what you can do about it, I offer up the following suggestions:

PharmedOut is an independent, publicly funded project whose goal is to empower physicians to recognize and counteract inappropriate pharmaceutical promotion. Last week they released publicly a slideshow called “The Physician-Pharma Relationship.” Check out the press release and slideshow here.

Not on the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s e-mail list? Click here to check out the site and sign up to get regular summaries of what’s going on in the world of science and health delivered to your inbox. From disclosing financial conflicts of interest in research studies that affect your life to the latest analysis of FDA policy changes and announcements, the Integrity in Science Watch e-mail is a treasure trove of the kind of information you need to have but can’t always get to easily.

It’s no secret that healthcare is one of the most pressing political issues out there. Election year scrutiny got you thinking? Visit the Partnership To Fight Chronic Disease, a great resource that is a “national coalition of patients, providers, community organizations, business and labor groups and health policy experts, committed to raising awareness of policies and practices that save lives and reduce health costs through more effective prevention and management of chronic disease.”

As for me, I’m planning my next phone call to try and remedy this pill situation. Luckily I’ve got plenty to read while I wait on hold.