Joining the 44 Million Club

Beka - The waves were pounding the shore today. People came and went as the heat crept up during the day. It was a spectacular day; I sat on the sand and watched the crying seagulls, while I wondered about the status of my health insurance.

My COBRA benefits are going to end in 2 weeks. For the last 6 months I have searched the Internet for low cost health insurance plans; none exist in the NYC area. If I continue my current plan as a single independent subscriber, my monthly cost would be over $1042.00. In addition, I’m not sure that I would be eligible for immediate coverage because of a pre-existing health condition - dystonia.

What am I going to do? I wondered about that as the ocean breezes cooled my hot SPF 30- lathered skin.  I had asked that my status to be changed from per diem to part-time, back in January. Nursing administrators all knew that I had dystonia and walked around with a Deep Brain Stimulator (DBS), as I floated among 4 ICUs. They knew of all my media contacts and TV appearances related to dystonia. However, after multiple email exchanges I still needed to sit in a Human Resources (HR) office explaining DBS and dystonia to a non-medical HR person. The person didn’t know what dystonia was. She was more interested in knowing “How many magnets are present in the CCU, SICU and CTICU?” and “Has Dr. Mike had cleared you to work in the ICUs?” I had been cleared 5 weeks after the implantation of the device, back in 2005! 

All the Hospital VPs knew of my procedure. My frustration with HR increased as the humidity increased during the day on the Jersey beach. I left HR without an answer about my job status request. After 10 years of floating among all the ICUs, no one knows each ICU’s protocols and standards of care better than I do. But I guess this doesn’t really matter to HR or to nursing administration. I am just a person who is going to have to join the 44 million club -- the 44 million Americans who also have no health insurance coverage. A sign of the times.