The crisis of American health care is not limited to uninsured people, unable to pay for their care. This article shows a deepening problem of working people with insurance unable to pay for treatment of serious illnesses.
By Lindy Washburn – The Bergen Record
First Posted: January 27, 2012
HACKENSACK, N.J. — Frances Giordano found out she had lung cancer in June. After that, the bad news just kept coming.
First, she discovered that even with a good job and health insurance, her medical expenses were more than she could afford on disability.
Then she started slipping into debt, like millions of other Americans who don’t have the cash to cover their medical bills. Hospitals expect to be paid promptly and offer little leeway to insured patients. Unpaid bills go to collection agencies, damaging a person’s credit history for years.
Finally, she learned that fighting for her life was not her only battle or maybe even her toughest. When she finished her chemotherapy in December, she was fired. “Due to changes in business operations,” wrote her employer of more than six years, “We can no longer hold your position open.”
It arrived nine days before Christmas.
“I’m a good person,” the 58-year-old Giordano said in an interview, crying. “I worked hard. Isn’t having cancer enough?”
The crisis in American health care is not limited to hospital emergency rooms where uninsured people wait for care. It also is found in a neat, three-bedroom house in Dumont, N.J., occupied by a widow who worked full time, raised two kids and likes to get her nails done occasionally.
In less than a year, Giordano lost her health and her job. Now, she’s afraid she’ll lose her good credit and her health coverage.
In the lonely hours of the night, she said she thinks about giving up.
Giordano had health insurance throughout her illness. She didn’t have to beg for treatment and was not denied it. She loves the surgeon and oncologist and nurses whose care, she hopes, will give her many more good days with her first grandchild, born in July.
But she may be ruined financially. In this country, people can go broke if they get sick.