Before I begin this post, I want to say from the start that I do not want to head into this issue. We all have places for our money to go, and no one is exempt from bills. I understand all that, but in order for you to understand exactly what I'm doing right now, you need to understand why I made the decision to do it, and, unfortunately that involves money.
When I was first diagnosed with cancer in October of 2016, Vernon was working and we had insurance. In February of 2017, Vernon lost his job and in March we started on a Christian medical sharing "insurance". Because my cancer had been diagnosed 5 months before starting the insurance, it was considered a pre-existing condition. These Christian insurance plans are under different requirements than traditional insurance companies and are legally allowed to consider pre-existing conditions. None of my cancer treatment would be guaranteed to be covered. We knew that when we joined, but with Vernon out of work and COBRA outrageous in price we accepted that that was the case. We mainly wanted to cover ourselves in case something else came up, especially while Vernon was unemployed. What happened with this particular plan, and I am not sure if they all work this way or not, you send your uncovered bills in and they consider them a "special need". Everyone pays their "premium" each month to a family to cover the cost of covered claims. If, after you pay your premium, you want to send additional money to a "special need", you can do that. My cancer bills were part of the "special need" program.
I had my surgery in July of 2018, and in September of 2018 we started insurance through Vernon's new job. After surgery, I applied for the hospital's hardship program since we knew nothing was guaranteed to be covered with our existing insurance. I have no issue with the hospital or their program. They were, and are, really great in every way. My surgery alone cost $20,000 and they brought that down to $4,000 through the program. Of course, there were doctors fees and imaging that was not part of the $20,000, but the hospital really did do a tremendous job of helping us. My surgeon did the surgery for free. I did have other bills, but as I said, I cannot complain in the least. The hospital and doctors at St. Elizabeth made me see that not every doctor is in business for the money.
On a side note, Duncan came home last Christmas and had to have double hernia surgery before going back to school. Again, the doctors and hospital, came through and helped reduce the amount we owed them even though we had insurance coverage for this.
After seeing the oncologist and having tests run this summer, bills started mounting up once again. By October, we had 12 medical bills totaling around $8,000 that was not covered by insurance. My mistletoe treatments were costing $500/week by the middle of November. Each treatment increased the dosage and the cost, and because mistletoe is natural treatment none of my treatments were covered by insurance even though we do have insurance through Vernon's employer now. By mid-November we were drained financially. After praying much about what to do, I decided it was best to quit treatments. I had done 8 treatments at that point, exactly 1/2 of what they had wanted me to do.
The Lord has given me much peace about stopping treatment. My plan is, once I finish paying off the current medical bills, I will start treatment back up. Next time I will tell you how the Lord has confirmed my decision to stop treatments.
No comments:
Post a Comment