When 33-year-old Diyon and her husband adopted a child earlier this year, they quickly learned some demoralizing news. The only way to cover the new expenses related to their new son Jayden's multiple health conditions was for her to leave her job and for the family to shed some of it’s limited assets to qualify Jayden for Medicaid. In the process, the family went from a combined income of over $65,000 to filing for bankruptcy within a few months.

So far Jayden has needed surgeries and a stay in a natal intensive care unit. Diyon says she’s happy with his care under Medicaid up to date.

But she’s worried about the cost of Jayden’s care longer term. She plans to go back to work in the fall and put him on her work insurance, but even under that plan the cost of additional supplies and surgeries – should Jayden need them – could easily swamp the family’s ability to pay. There’s a $3,000 annual deductible, Diyon’s and Jayden’s premium, and a 20% co pay for major medical, all of which will be a struggle even with two incomes restored.

The “last resort” of declaring Chapter 7 bankruptcy helped this time around, but the law says you can only do that once every eight years. Should any kind of disaster strike, it’s unclear what the family might be able to do.

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comments (5)

Comments

1 Posted by Nancy Birkhimer at 06/24/08 03:23 PM

How terribly sad. Todays health care costs are hurting everyone. Something needs to be done about the cost and F A S T. I think it is very compassionate of the U.S. to help other countries
with health care but let's start with the U.S.

2 Posted by Brenda Cunningham at 06/27/08 01:06 PM

Unfortunately this kind of story is becoming common in the United States. It should be something we rarely see happening but I agree that the U.S. helps every other country but people in our country go unnoticed. Insurance companies charge so much for premiums, deductibles and co-pays that you are constantly paying everything yourself. I don't know if it is greedy doctors or the insurance companies itself that is making health insurance unaffordable. Something does have to be done quickly and hopefully whoever gets in office with make this their top priority.

3 Posted by josie at 06/27/08 01:50 PM

I think it is a crime that this supposedly #1 country in the world (at least we like to see ourselves as the #1)is not willing to do what is right by implementing a health care system that will include anyone and make it affordable for everyone based on your income, that way it would be easier for the poor as they will pay very little or nothing in some cases and the rich people will (for a change) pay their share instead of always having loopholes in their favor. I am all for helping other nations in need BUT let's face it, this country needs to take care of its own citizens first, making sure everyone has health coverage and has food on their tables, then by all means let's help others too! enough is enough!

4 Posted by Deborah Stucklen at 06/27/08 05:35 PM

We have insurance, but I rarely use it. There are too many shocks. I'm 65 and should have a mammogram yearly, but I last had it in 2005. That is because the insurance company informed me that ALL costs would be covered. Imagine my shock when I was billed for over $200. It turned out that the insurance company only paid for hospital provided services. Although I never left the hospital, some of the service providers within, were not part of the hospital. I was eventually able to haggle for a reduced cost. I do not get any checkups, go to the doctor if I think it's just a cold or flu, etc. I have arthritis, low energy, fragile skin,etc., but I figure I can live with these. Some health system in a country that is happy to finance a $3 trillion war. P.S. I'm angry about the 1 million plus Iraqis and Afghanis or 4,110 US troops who have died and the many times more who have been injured, tortured or suffer PTSD and receive too little, delayed, or no health care. America spends more on health care than other countries, yet has unacceptable mortality and morbidity statistics. We need government supplied universal, single payer health care and take the abusive pharmaceuticals and insurance companies out of the system.

5 Posted by J Parker at 08/28/08 08:42 PM

healthcare problems are caused by drugs, and the side effects that are attached to them, people keep listening to doctors who are listening to pharmaceutical companies who are very anxious to poison everyone they can with the latest and greatest, useless drug they have produced, there are many ways to stay healthy, and the old adage an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure still holds true, and the cure should be natural but there is no money in those natural cures for big pharma, and big pharma is very very greedy soon they will bankrupt our country and we are just about the least healthy country there is we spend more money, and get less results than 38 other countries because we are controlled by the FDA and the big money-making pharmaceutical companies they could care less about your health.. our food and water are loaded with poisons thanks to them and human bodies do NOT do well on chemicals, thats what causes more and more disease.. research for yourselves, stop being sheep, and look...read...listen and think this whole tour was probably set up by the drug companies to try to get more money from the government by getting americans to whine about their circumstances...STOP...LOOK...LISTEN we do need change, but throwing good money after bad will NOT do it investigate what I am saying for yourself we live in a greedy self-serving world wake up america we need to advocate for ourselves and get clean water, good food and come at health care from a different stance...well-care. if we had unprocessed, unsterilized, unpreserved, naturally colored food to eat we would see a big improvement in everyones overall health but whats cheap to eat in this country...junk plain junk even bugs don't want the white foam rubber bread thats for sale here look around it will be hard to change too many big companies make to much monet at our expense they don't want change....read,learn, listen, ask whos writing what you are reading, check if its true, much of the time its not, its just propaganda to get you to buy some new junk so they can make money they push the sheep around driving them whichever way they can to get what they want STOP STOP we have a brain lets use it

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