Denied by Medi-Cal and $150,000 in medical expenses: What is a one-eyd girl to do??!@$%

Darn my seeing right eye!!! I should’ve faked brain damage or claimed Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Unfortunately, the high doses of morphine right after the accident made me crack pirate jokes, and I was in no condition to strategize on how to get out of the astronimical debt that I’m in now.

This was Medi-Cal’s statement on why my claim for disability insurance was declined:

“The medical evidence shows that applicant suffered injuries from a car accident in 8/05, resulting in loss of her vision in her left eye and broken bones in her face and neck areas. Based on the medical evidence, applicant has normal vision in her right eye and does not meet the requirements for statutory blindess, and broken bones in her neck and face areas are expected to make full recovery.”

This is an excerpt from a frightening New Yorker article on the “Uninsured in America.” (It was posted Aug. 22, 2005, five days before my accident; if I had read it I would have quarantined myself to the safety of my house, until I was sufficiently insured. Ah, well, I had needed the adventure.)

“The U. S. health-care system, according to “Uninsured in America,? has created a group of people who increasingly look different from others and suffer in ways that others do not. The leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States is unpaid medical bills. Half of the uninsured owe money to hospitals, and a third are being pursued by collection agencies. Children without health insurance are less likely to receive medical attention for serious injuries, for recurrent ear infections, or for asthma. Lung-cancer patients without insurance are less likely to receive surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation treatment. Heart-attack victims without health insurance are less likely to receive angioplasty. People with pneumonia who don’t have health insurance are less likely to receive X rays or consultations. The death rate in any given year for someone without health insurance is twenty-five per cent higher than for someone with insurance. Because the uninsured are sicker than the rest of us, they can’t get better jobs, and because they can’t get better jobs they can’t afford health insurance, and because they can’t afford health insurance they get even sicker.”

All those without health insurance can read the rest of the New Yorker article and get even more depressed,… and you’re in luck no treatment to help you.