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Just got hit with a surprise medical bill and I'm feeling extra mad at the deathcare system we have in America, so I'm just going to share what I've been through this year and further highlight how absurd it is that anyone could want anything other than Medicare for All. 
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Starting at the beginning. In mid 2018, I quit a cushy finance job due to the overwhelming stress, health problems and general unhappiness it brought me. I'd saved up some money, and I wanted to move to LA to pursue art and film (or something more fulfilling) instead. 2/?
Walking away from this job was hard. I had great employer-sponsored healthcare. My deductible was only $300 a year, my co-pays and premiums were next to nothing, and I could easily access a PCP when needed. This didn't outweigh the job stress though, so I left. 3/?
I was offered a brief COBRA extensionplan , which was extremely $$$, so I did not sign up for it. My healthcare expired in June 2018. I spent the rest of the year waiting for open enrollment so I could purchase Obamacare coverage on the exchange, hoping nothing would happen. 4/?
Open enrollment came & wow, that was also very expensive for any sort of worthwhile health plan. It took me a while to get on my feet in CA, and though I purchased a plan through the exchange, I had to let it lapse because despite working full time I couldn't make ends meet. 5/?
By April 2019, I was again uninsured (and unable to obtain healthcare through my new job). I was constantly stressed and anxious about the possibility of something happening to me, of needing hospital care while uninsured. Basic care was out of the question. This took a toll. 6/?
October 2019 rolled around and yay, I was able to afford a middle tier plan on the exchange. I purchased it mid-October, but it wouldn't be effective until January 2020. I'd nearly made it! Was almost there! And then my nightmare happened and I was hospitalized Dec 2019. 7/?
For some reason or another, I'd developed a heart arrhythmia. My brand of arrhythmia is called SVT. It means sometimes my heart kicks into an extremely fast rhythm (180+ bpm) during a resting state, for no reason other than electrical malfunction. 8/?
The first time this happened I was at work. After trying to relax for 15 min or so, my boss called 911 and the paramedics came. They ran an EKG and were alarmed. They said I needed to go to the hospital. So they put me on a stretcher and into the ambulance I went. 9/?
They warned me that I needed a pretty serious drug called adenosine that effectively reboots your
and has the potential to flatline you if not administered properly. As I was laying there in the ambulance receiving this drug all I could say was "But I don't have insurance." 10/?
and has the potential to flatline you if not administered properly. As I was laying there in the ambulance receiving this drug all I could say was "But I don't have insurance." 10/?
They told me not to worry about it, but how could I not? Was all I could think about. I spent the next 4 hours in the hospital receiving a full work-up. This would cost nearly $10K. They didn't have any answers for me by the end, only that I needed to see a cardiologist. 11/?
This was in early December. My healthcare plan wouldn't be valid until 1/1. I spent the next 3 weeks in a state of panic, unable to make so much as a phone call (I tried, and my to-be provider turned me away bc the plan wasn't live yet). I didn't know what was wrong with me. 12/?
The arrhythmia made a few other appearances in this time. I even went to the ER again, again without insurance. I received the same answers. Finally 1/1 arrived, and I was able to call a cardiologist. Only to hit a new roadblock! Cardiologists only take patients by referral. 13/?
This is because of insurance providers. Insurance providers don't want to cover appts with specialists, because they are expensive, so they make you prove to your PCP that you need a specialist before you're allowed to see one. So set back again, I made an appt with a PCP. 14/?
After waiting 2 weeks, I was able to see a PCP mid-Jan. I told her about my experience and she said it sounded like I needed to see a cardiologist. Imagine that! Only, I would have to wear a 24-hour heart monitor to prove with hard data that my heart was being weird. Policy. 15/?
These were of course all appts I had to pay co-pays for. I felt like I was in a video game going through a dungeon trying to unlock the boss room. The co-pays ranged between $40 and $80 a piece. After wearing the monitor, I was finally allowed an appt with a cardio. 16/?
Mid Feb 2020. A full 2 months after my hospitalization, I had finally made it through the insurance maze and was able to speak with someone who could tell me what was going on. After several more tests, co-pays and arrhythmias, I finally had a diagnosis! Whew. 17/?
Like I said, I was diagnosed with SVT. Luckily it's an electrical problem, not a structural problem, and there is a procedure called an ablation that effectively cures it if successful. The alternative is to take a beta blocker every day forever. 18/?
I opted for the pill for a while. I wanted to think about the procedure. Plus I figured it would be expensive. For the next 8 months I took it twice daily. At some point it started to be less effective. The arrhythmia was back again, and really effecting my quality of life. 19/?
Exercise, food, emotions could all trigger it. It was never as bad as it was off the pill, but it still was highly uncomfortable. I have basically lived in fear of triggering this arrhythmia for the last year. In Oct 2020 after a bad episode, I decided to try the procedure. 20/?
I called my provider to get a cost quote. They said even with my premiums and co-pay it would be around $2K out of pocket. $2K I didn't have after being out of a job for 9 months due to a pandemic, but I figured I had a credit card and it was worth it. I scheduled the appt. 20/?
Upon scheduling, they backtracked and said I would only owe the co-pay. Great news!12/3 I went in for the procedure, so excited and ready to be done with this. Ready to be able to live normally again. To drink a fucking cup of coffee (with SVT I can't have caffeine). 22/?
The procedure didn't work. It wasn't fun either. I was fully awake as they snaked electrical catheters up through my groin into my heart, hitting me with electrical signals for an hour to try to trigger (and locate) which abnormal tissue the arrhythmia was coming from. 23/?
"Big foot didn't want to come out and play," the surgeon said. Being unable to trigger the bad tissue meant they were unable to locate, let alone burn the problem area (which is how the ablation works). I was wheeled out into recovery, back to square one. 24/?
I was crushed. I'd hung so many hopes on being able to move on from this horrible and traumatic experience, but it was back to beta blockers for me. The surgeon told me we could try again later, but only if I came back "with a stack of EKGs" so they could better pinpoint it. 25/?
What was I supposed to do? Visit the cardiologist every day for $80 a pop to rent a monitor so I could try to catch the arrhythmia? Luckily my very nice mom decided to buy me an Apple watch which apparently has EKG capability. A lot of people prolly don't have that option. 26/?
I am hoping that going forward I can record my heart when it is in arrhythmia, compile EKGs, and return to try the procedure again down the road. However, today I received a bill that is going to put any of that on hold! 27/?
Surprise! They hit me with a procedure bill that was even more than what they initially quoted me. Certainly more than I have on hand in a year when I've been out of a job due to a pandemic for 9 months. I'll get on a payment plan, but anything else will have to wait. 28/?
So looks like it's back to beta blockers for the forseeable future. Half of me is hesitant to even try again. Like for fuck's sake, do I really want to pay another massive sum of money for a procedure that might not even work the second time? Seems iffy. 29/?
All this to say, can't even begin to articulate how much easier this would have been if we had universal health coverage. Didn't even mention what a pain it was to get the records from my hospitalization to the surgeons bc they don't fall under the same provider umbrella. 30/?
The whole process was so inefficient, I had to do so much anxious waiting during an already traumatic time, and constantly had to prove myself to an insurance company. So many doors were slammed in my face when I really needed medical care. 31/?
Money is such an enormous obstacle. So many couldn't have afforded to get as far as I did in this process. So many, DURING A PANDEMIC, without jobs, are without any care at all. In which the ablation, as it's not a life threatening emergency, is impossible to receive. 32/?
Tying healthcare to employment is barbaric. Having for-profit healthcare is barbaric. Having suit-and-tie insurance providers that get to decide who has their most basic human needs met and who doesn't is fundamentally cruel and evil. So yeah. FUCK this shit. END THREAD. 33/33
