My thoughts on the health care thing (given my life, my multiple sclerosis, and my iBot)

The exciting nature of being ordinary

Sorting it all Out — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 14:19:36 GMT

So, way back in 1999, Microsoft eliminated the MVP program that they had created and nurtuted. It was

re: My thoughts on the health care thing (given my life, my multiple sclerosis, and my iBot)

Rob Margel — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:20:44 GMT

So just to compare my UK situation with CML (Chronic Myeloid Leukeamia) and our NHS, whihc doesn't always get the best press but in my case saved my life.

Being in employment in the UK I have paid taxes to support the National Health Service and also have additional private company insurance via Microsoft if for what ever reason I need to go private.

I was diagnosed of the Leukeamia following a failed blood test when I tried to donate blood (I was a previouse blood donor) at Microsoft one time 3.5 years ago.

Since then all my treatment, tests including bone marrow extraction (ouch) and drugs (Gleevec/Imatinib) which cost the NHS annually in the region £30,000 . I even get my £7.20 3 monthly prescription paid for now as all cancer drugs are free prescription as well.

My only personal costs have been travel to the specialist center, all the rest of costs has been paid for by the NHS.

I now thanks to an early diagnosis and good response to the drugs have only 0.12% of leukeamia cells in my blood (was 70% at diagnosis). So I have been able to lead a pretty normal life for quite some time without any treatment costs concerns. Which if it where not for the NHS might not have been the case.

How some americans label the NHS as Evil is beyond me.

Just a comparison.

Rob

re: My thoughts on the health care thing (given my life, my multiple sclerosis, and my iBot)

Wesner Moise — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:15:46 GMT

Oh my god!

My personal fear is that once I get sick, the insurance company will cancel my coverage that I have been paying for years.

re: My thoughts on the health care thing (given my life, my multiple sclerosis, and my iBot)

Michael S. Kaplan — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:24:47 GMT

Though I wouldn't consider it a horror story in a classic sense -- in the end, I made it through, though not through any particular heroics or anything. True horror really needs to instill pity and/or terror, and this story doesn't do enough of either.

Now if you had to tack in a bankruptcy, or losing a house, or not being able to get treatment, or not knowing an eminent neurosurgeon to do the cutting, or not getting an iBot but being in a wheelchair, not being able to work anymore -- there may have been a shot. But with the story as it happened? Not so much....

re: My thoughts on the health care thing (given my life, my multiple sclerosis, and my iBot)

Michael S. Kaplan — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:03:12 GMT

On the other hand, I have never considered New York City to be even semi-civilized :-)

re: My thoughts on the health care thing (given my life, my multiple sclerosis, and my iBot)

John Cowan — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:11:15 GMT

When I read horror stories like this, I thank Ghu that I live in semi-civilized territory, namely New York State, where pre-existing condition exceptions are forbidden. (Insurance is basically a state-by-state issue.) By the time I came to work for a California company, HIPAA was in place and I was easily able to prove continuous coverage, though of course it was a paperwork headache. (Think how much insurers save on New York contracts by not having to jump through HIPAA hoops!)