Dear New York Senators Kirsten Gillibrand & Charles Schumer,

This morning, I heard one of the newscasters say:

“Most American’s do not want the federal government to take over the health care industry.”

I was getting my two youngest kids off to school and getting ready for work, so I don’t know what facts or opinion he was quoting, but I was sure angry that he attempted to speak for me.

I’m American and I indeed, think it is very important for the US government to do something about this mess the health care industry is in and that I have to suffer for.

I have been attempting to call your offices all afternoon, but I either get a busy signal or the call just won’t go through.

I wanted you to know what THIS American has to been dealing with because of the lack of nationalized healthcare for all US citizens:

I was working in a four start local restaurant, full time, for almost three years when I fell off my front porch in October 2007. I was hanging Halloween decorations and ended up fracturing my left humerus in the fall. I went to the ER and they confirmed the break and set my arm and referred me to orthopedics for the follow up care. At the doctor’s office, the conversation went like this as the doctor looked at my X-ray for the first time:

 

• DOC: This is a bad break. You really need surgery for this. You need a rod
  in there. Otherwise you will have less range of motion, your shoulder will
  freeze up, you’ll need lots of physical therapy,…
• ME: Yeah, well we are
  part of the growing group of millions of American’s who have no health
  insurance.
• DOC: oh…ok, well then, we’ll just wrap it back up and you’ll do
  just fine.

I did not do just fine at all.

The cost of surgery was around 30K at that time. The typical procedure is to go in, repair the break with a steel rod and use pins. I had no healthcare offered at my job since it is a small business. My husband was self employed and we could not afford it. Together we made 60 dollars over the eligible limits for Healthy New York. The next self pay group for a family was over 600 a month. Sixty dollars over does not mean we could afford to pay out an extra 500, so none of the people in my family had health insurance. We were self pay and the only thing we could have done was sell our house and live in our car so I could have surgery.

Not a great health care option, but I was going to be fine right?

Wrong.
I am typing this with a broken arm.

After four months in a hard cast, three more in a brace and 120 nights getting “electronically stimulated”, it never healed. The bones click together when I wipe down the kitchen counter or when I brush my hair. I do no have full use of my left arm. My children fight over who gets stuck holding the “broke hand”. I am 41 years old.

Luckily, the economy got so bad here that construction jobs for my husband dried up and with no income we were finally able to fall under the NY definition of poor enough.

Mind you, I have worked since I was 13, pay my taxes, own a home; good middle class values things.. and I vote. It was really hard and rather demeaning to jump through all the hopes.

Currently, I only have to wait for my cards to come in. I was told they should be here by June. I would like to be treated like a human being worthy of care. I would like to know when I will be able to raise my arm up again. I would like to be able to hammer a nail in a wall. I would like to be able to swim with my children again. Now the surgery will cost around 40K as they need to chip out what bone did grow and user cadaver bone grafts as well. And I will need more physical therapy since my arm has been only half working for over a year and a half.

It’s wrong that I have been denied a basic medical procedure because of my lack of insurance. I know it’s supposed to be my fault somehow that I didn’t have any. If I had a better job than I would have been ok, right?

But I have a better job now. I am the Director of Social Media at an Internet Marketing Firm ( a job I do with one hand!) Today, the insurance reps came in to talk to my office about the ever changing options available. And for just ME to be insured is about 20% of my income a month. For my whole family the cost of health insurance is over 1/3 of my paycheck. It’s more than my mortgage! Are you going to cut cost 50%? Because even then I could not opt in unless someone took over my food bill.

Even now that it is offered, we still cannot afford it and it is the most horrible plan ever! Even if the current administration cuts prices the plans are still insane. This one they were pushing had a 10k deductable for a family.. so I pay out over 10K a year, pay for everything until I hit the 5K deductable and THEN my insurance kicks in?? It’s illogical! Most people will see that they do spend more than 15K a year seeing doctors.

Please think of me, think of a mother of four; working, driving, doing laundry, and washing dishes.. all with a still broken humerus that hurts every day and vote for a huge change!
Fix it and give us American people the national healthcare we deserve!

Thank you,
Claudia Corrigan D’Arcy
Kingston, NY