Our good pal Brandon “Offworld” Boyer has cancer. Lucky for Brandon, he signed up for medical insurance with Humana not long before he was diagnosed. Unlucky for him, Humana has decided unilaterally not to cover his cancer treatments and has stuck him with with a $100,000 bill. He’s raising money from the Internet to help pay for his life-saving treatments. I’m in for $100. If you’re thinking of getting insured, be warned: Humana will screw you and screw you and screw you.
It wasn’t until a few weeks ago when the formal denial letter came through that the gravity of the situation really hit home: because I hadn’t lied when I saw my first doctor — because I’d told them that I’d had stomachaches at any point in the past five years, whether or not I’d gone to a doctor for it — I’d fallen under a fine-print pre-existing condition clause that said that any signs of illness that could possibly have led a doctor to a diagnosis since 2008 were cause for denying any compensation for any ailment of pretty much my entire alimentary canal.
Patient Advocate took a look at the letter and were super candid: the chances for a successful appeal were basically zero.
When I tell people this, their first reaction is always: I don’t get it, didn’t this just get fixed with the new Health Insurance Marketplace? And it did, and it’s maybe the single most important part of the initiative, but it only covers anything from January 2014 on, and I had the misfortune of being self-employed & sick in America in 2013.
Brandon Boyer Cancer Treatment Relief
(via Waxy)