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Post by Smurfette Principle on Oct 29, 2011 12:58:47 GMT -5
I think I'm going to cry.As Miran Istina puts it, she has been living on borrowed time since she was 14. Diagnosed with cancer, she was given just months to live after her health insurer refused to provide her with life-saving surgery.
Now 18, Istina, from the city of Sisters in Oregon, has spent the past three weeks living in a tent at the Occupy San Francisco protest and says she will stay there indefinitely, despite her illness.
She was inspired to take part in the protest by the refusal of her insurance company to pay for treatment for her chronic myelogenous leukaemia.
She said: "They denied me on the terms of a pre-existing condition. Seeing as I had only had that insurance for a few months, and I was in early stage two which meant I had to have had it for at least a year, they determined it was a pre-existing condition and denied me healthcare."
Treatment would require a bone marrow transplant and extensive radiation therapy and chemotherapy, at a cost of several hundreds of thousands of dollars. Coming from an ordinary middle-class background, her family has no way of paying for the surgery that would save her life.
Following her insurer's refusal, she spent three years travelling the US looking for a healthcare provider who would give her a chance at life.
Istina said: "I went all over the place, looking for someone to give a damn, really, someone to care enough to treat me. Because we were middle class, we couldn't afford to treat my disease. We'd be in debt for the rest of our family life."
After repeated refusals to offer her treatment, she said: "I decided I was going to spend the rest of my life doing whatever my heart wants."
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Post by Mlle Antéchrist on Oct 29, 2011 13:07:31 GMT -5
Major respect for this girl.
The fact that this is legal is just... ugh. Wanna see some death panels, tea baggers? Go tour your private insurers' head offices.
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Post by SimSim on Oct 29, 2011 13:58:45 GMT -5
From what I understand that's no longer legal thanks to Obama's healthcare reform.
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Post by gadfly on Oct 29, 2011 14:11:07 GMT -5
Major respect for this girl. The fact that this is legal is just... ugh. Wanna see some death panels, tea baggers? Go tour your private insurers' head offices. Yeah. I think they kinda deserve to get some Saw VI Jigsaw-style healthcare options themselves. |
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Post by Meshakhad on Oct 29, 2011 14:17:09 GMT -5
Whoever made that decision to deny her treatment should be made to pay for her treatment out of their own pocket.
Also, has anyone tried to raise charity money for her?
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Post by Smurfette Principle on Oct 29, 2011 14:17:22 GMT -5
From what I understand that's no longer legal thanks to Obama's healthcare reform. Healthcare reform doesn't officially start until 2014. If Obama loses this election, it will never go into effect. |
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Post by SimSim on Oct 29, 2011 14:55:55 GMT -5
From what I understand that's no longer legal thanks to Obama's healthcare reform. Healthcare reform doesn't officially start until 2014. If Obama loses this election, it will never go into effect. Some of the changes have already taken effect, I wasn't sure when that was going to be phased in. |
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Post by Damen on Oct 29, 2011 17:23:27 GMT -5
From what I understand that's no longer legal thanks to Obama's healthcare reform. Healthcare reform doesn't officially start until 2014. If Obama loses this election, it will never go into effect. True, but the provision that children can't be excluded for preexisting conditions went into effect immediately. However, she's now 18 and insurance companies keep filing for extensions on the overhaul to delay having to make any changes so they can "get ready for it" and yet so far have made no changes. So, it sounds to me like she's still screwed.  |
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Post by scienceisgreen on Oct 29, 2011 19:34:55 GMT -5
Well if my bone marrow was a match *not likely* I'd totally give it to this deserving person
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Post by Vene on Oct 29, 2011 19:36:18 GMT -5
Well if my bone marrow was a match *not likely* I'd totally give it to this deserving person But do you have the money to pay for the operation? |
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Post by Mlle Antéchrist on Oct 29, 2011 20:55:04 GMT -5
People like her make me want to set up some kind of heavily illegal operation where I let Americans use my address to feign residency and gain access to our health care system.
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Post by MaybeNever on Oct 29, 2011 21:06:11 GMT -5
But just think, some insurance exec earned a cool hundred grand as a bonus for denying service! How can you heartless bastards even think of depriving him or her of that hard-earned money?
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Post by Mlle Antéchrist on Oct 29, 2011 21:19:47 GMT -5
Sick people are so selfish. Health insurers should organize "Occupy Ward D".
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Post by MaybeNever on Oct 29, 2011 21:25:43 GMT -5
Yeah, it's about time the rich and powerful got a little slice of the pie to call their own.
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Post by Thejebusfire on Oct 30, 2011 0:46:56 GMT -5
That breaks my heart.
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