With a big smile and warm Oklahoma welcome Janne showed us into her home last week. There were no outward signs of the pain and suffering she has lived with every day for 10 years now.

Janne – it’s pronounced “Jan” – told us how it all started back in 1998, when her oldest son Sean got deep in credit card debt and took his own life. To deal with this tragic event, the family chose to go for counseling, a decision that Janne says she would make again today given the circumstances. Unfortunately, it was a decision that would soon come back to haunt the family in another devastating ordeal, this one with her youngest son, Tim.

After graduating high school Tim headed off to college, but soon found that it wasn’t the right time for him. He left school for the working world. Over 18 and out of college, he could no longer stay on his parent’s health insurance but, as Janne described, was still effectively under their care at 19 years old.

Tim’s job didn’t provide health insurance, so his mom contacted an agent and began shopping around for coverage. She was stunned when the insurance agent told her he could find no coverage options.

Janne says insurers refused to cover her son solely on the basis of his previous visit to a therapist to help deal with the sudden loss of his brother. According to a spokesperson for the Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner, insurance companies have their own underwriting guidelines and if they decide there’s a risk, then they have the right to deny coverage.

For a few years, everything was fine. Tim was healthy and mom and dad helped with the occasional visit to the doctor, until one very bad day in 2002. While fixing his car he had an accident and was burned badly. Complications during surgery resulted in over $1 million in medical bills. Uninsured, Tim was responsible for the entire amount.

During a very serious discussion of Tim’s tragedy we asked “So how much were the bills?” To our surprise, she just burst into laughter. Here was an ordinary family that had tried to get coverage for their son being told they had to pay over $1 million in medical bills. Were it not so tragic, it might have been kind of funny to watch.

Both Tim and Janne know they will never be able to pay the huge bills and that the good doctors and other health providers that healed his wounds will never see the money they are owed.

And this is where the life she imagined for her second son changed as well. She described how he will always have difficulty owning a home, or a car and even getting good jobs with his poor credit rating. Employers often check credit scores along with resumes and references when making hiring decisions. That doesn’t bode well for Tim in the long run, but things are looking up a bit. A couple of weeks ago he got a new job – one with health benefits.

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1 Posted by at 08/25/08 08:01 AM

Janne says insurers refused to cover her son solely on the basis of his previous visit to a therapist to help deal with the sudden loss of his brother.
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katie
Oklahoma Drug Addiction

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