Share Your Story: What do preventive health services with no co-pays or deductibles mean to you?

At 56, sharing custody of our last child, aged 13, I have degenerative discs, limited mobility and chronic pain,  and am no longer able to work fulltime. I have a Master's degree in Education, a Bachelor's in Communications, and have worked for the common good as a teacher most of my adult life, for non-profits or Charter Schools. We were never unionized, and therefore had no protection when budget cuts hit our schools at twice the rate of standard schools. I have no insurance, no savings, and am living on unemployment and some child support. I pay all medical out of pocket, which has been cheaper than paying for insurance copays. Likewise, when I was eligible for Medi-Cal, my share of cost was $1100/mo - more than my rent. But I could not find a single doctor who would see me on Medi-Cal. Desperate, I offered to pay cash, but was told medical professionals are legally barred from accepting cash from Medi-Cal patients. So I had to let the Medi-Cal lapse in order to be seen. To be perfectly frank, I am holding on until my daughter is of age, and then, with no family or partner, I do not intend to continue. I will not be a burden on my children who are struggling themselves just to make ends meet.  I don't believe there is a place for me, or people like me, in this society any more. In "Soylent Green", the 'State' offered suicide centers for those who had no other options. And I keep waiting for the moment when America decides it has a 'new job-creation model that solves multiple problems at once...'

 I think we have not gone far enough with health coverage.  There are strange loopholes ( fabricated by insurance companies perhaps?)  My doctor told me it is time to have a routine colonoscopy. After many phone calls to different doctors and to my insurance company (which is a major one,) I learned this.  If the test reveals no problems, then my insurance company will cover the cost completely.  But if a polyp is found--even something which is benign--the cost of the entire test will revert to me.  The insurance company added this false reassurance, "we will apply that cost to your deductible."  But because health insurance costs have skyrocketed as I've grown older, I can only afford coverage with the highest deductible offered.  Therefore I would have to pay the entire cost myself because I will not reach the deductible level.  It seems as if the system is arranged to discourage people from having the test done (and of course, this is a test that people dislike.)  Do I want to gamble anywhere from $3200 to $5550 that I will get a clean bill of health?  Many of the doctors and workers in the doctors' offices to whom I've spoken did not even want to tell me how much the test would cost.  They would say they didn't know how much it costs or they would give me partial answers:  I was often told the hospital charges for the test. Only months later would a call to another doctor reveal that there are also doctor charges (and sometimes anesthesiologist charges) which add thousands more to the cost.   (And sure enough, when I called the first doctor's office again to check this out, the employee unwillingly admitted that there would be a doctor charge added to the  $3300 first quoted to me.)It seems to me that the coverage plan should not offer  an incentive to skip necessary tests. There must be some way for the insurance company  to charge the patient only for the extra time needed to handle the problem which the test reveals, while still covering in full the necessary test which reveals that problem.

In terms of the issue of preventive medicine, I have the following comments:Briefly, I've learned the wisdom over time of staying out of the VA's primary care system in the Midwest and doing my preventive care myself. (Yes, I am a veteran.) This is for the following reasons: first, the intolerance and hate endemic to downstate Illinois and Iowa had seeped into the primary care I had received over a period of eleven years, which included, amongst other things, the false accusation that I'm a drunk when in fact I almost never imbibe alcohol; second, the VA health care system in the Midwest is almost entirely allopathically based: for every problem, they seem entirely too quick to prescribe medication instead of looking more closely at what a patient really needs - or wants, for that matter; and third, I have an M.S. in general Psychology and some additional training that is partly clinical in nature, and the VA in the Midwest just can't seem to wrap its mind around that little fact, leading to a demeaning experience when dealing with them.As a consequence, I have taken myself as much out of the VA health care system in the Midwest as much as possible and chosen to be responsible for my own preventive care - both medically and mentally. This means I pay attention to my own bodily cues about what I need to eat and when, that I get moderate physical exercise every day in one form or another. It means that I stimulate my mind as much as possible each and every day and pay acute attention to what stresses me at a given moment.It also means that, where I had not already done so, I've taken lessons from Toshimi A. Kayaki's (2010) book on the subject of 'green tea living' and adapted some of the things that she mentions (i.e., the uses of green tea, diet tips, etc.) to my own personal circumstances and have also simplified my lifestyle in some ways that she suggests.Finally, it means I pay attention to the spiritual aspects of my physical and mental health, something the VA in the Midwest just doesn't want to grok, I've found from personal experience. Instead of going round and round with them any more over this issue, I've found considerable wisdom in disengaging from a mindset that I had found to be profoundly psychologically distressing and, in doing so, have helped to improve both my physical and mental health. I've pulled the metaphorical plug on my TV set, as it were, and rarely watch anything but videos of my own personal choice on it, in the process getting rid of the attempts at persuasion found in TV commercials (better it is to be yourself than what TV commercials - and other people - want you to be instead). Moreover, I meditate every day at least twice and monitor my mental state constantly, getting rid of old habits when the need arises and replacing them with new ones.While I can list other things that I do, I feel the point has been made: if you want decent preventive care, learn to do it yourself, in the process paying attention to sound medical and mental health advice, as well as the spiritual aspects associated with such aspects of health.ReferenceKayaki, T.A. (2010). Green tea living: a Japan-inspired guide to eco-friendly habits, health, and happiness. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press.

Twenty years ago, when our son was 17, we grew alarmed about his behavior; he had a form of ADD. So we sent him to an adolescent psychologist, whom our insurance would not pay. Fortunately, my husband and I were both working, so by pulling in our belts we were able to cover the costs. What if we hadn't been? We wouldn't have known how to help him. He would have continued dressing like a homeless person with his unbrushed hair snarled up in a knot that someone said looked like another head. He would have been completely at the mercy of school friends -- a girl who led him around by the nose, into Central Park, NYC,  barefoot and ready to try anything offered, such as LSD (which he did, once); a boy who was suicidal and another who kept borrowing money from him without paying him back. Today, thanks to Obamacare, his therapist would be paid for -- and that analyst did him a lot of good! Now that I'm retired and on a fixed income, I'm very grateful for Medicare, the continuity of which the Affordable Care Act ensures.