A Family Illness, and Fewer Friends Who Can Help

[question everything]

MARCH 5, 2009


A Family Illness, and Fewer Friends Who Can Help

By VANESSA FUHRMANS
WSJ

Chris and Vickie Cox's health insurance never covered the full cost of treating their children's bone-marrow disorder. They relied on donations from their church, neighbors and family to plug the holes in their coverage, which ran as high as $40,000 a year. That safety net is now unraveling. The slumping economy is pulling down fragile networks of support that in better times could keep families with insurance but big bills from falling into a financial hole. The three Cox children have a rare disease called Shwachman Diamond Syndrome, which curtails the production of bacteria-fighting blood cells and digestive enzymes needed to absorb nutrients properly. It can lead to life-threatening infection, bone-marrow failure or a deadly form of leukemia.

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But the Coxes' insurance covered only part of the children's care, which includes regular gamma globulin injections to boost their immune systems. At times, the children have seen specialists outside their insurer's network, requiring the Coxes to pay 30% of the bills. The companies that have insured the Cox children deemed some of their treatments experimental, which they don't tend to cover. Until recently, the Coxes stayed afloat on a patchwork of Good Samaritan efforts and rising home prices. The parish of their former church, Abundant Life Baptist of Lee's Summit, Mo., rallied around them, even after they moved from the Kansas City suburb to North Carolina. A medical fund set up by the church raised tens of thousands of dollars. A separate annual fund-raiser organized by neighbors has generated more than $50,000. And the Coxes tapped more than $100,000 of equity from their former Kansas City home to finance travel to far-flung hospitals before selling it in 2006. But the economic crisis is rattling their makeshift network of assistance. A New Year's water-skiing fund-raiser that raised $24,000 a year ago pulled in less than $11,000 this year. Monthly donations to their former church medical fund have dropped nearly 80% from a year ago.

(snip)

The Coxes face more than $40,000 in unpaid medical bills as the commissions that Mr. Cox makes on top of his $47,000 base salary dwindle. At the same time, the family's medical and dental premiums at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, the respiratory-device maker that employs Mr. Cox, jumped about 13% to $876 a month for 2009. To slash expenses, the family is considering moving out of their rental home in the Blue Ridge Mountains and into their travel trailer. "We don't care how we live," says Mrs. Cox, 40. "We care how the kids live."

Stories like the Coxes are proliferating as the recession intersects with the growing number of families who, in better times, could cobble together support. The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that conducts research on health-care issues, estimated that as of 2007, 25 million Americans had to spend at least 10% of their income -- 5% for low-income families -- on out-of-pocket medical costs. That's a 60% increase from 2003.

The problem is felt by some people diagnosed with more common ailments. When Molly Secours, a freelance filmmaker, fell ill with uterine cancer two years ago, her high-deductible insurance didn't offset her thousands of dollars in medical costs. But she was able to refinance the mortgage on her East Nashville home to pay some. Friends and local artists also raised $15,000 at a fund-raiser at the city's Belcourt Theatre to help her keep up house payments and pay other bills as she recovered... Though she's in remission now, Ms. Secours still pays nearly $500 in out-of-pocket drug costs each month and leftover medical debt. That makes it hard to pay the higher monthly payments she accepted when she refinanced her mortgage. Having missed the last three payments on her $166,000 mortgage, she says she'll be foreclosed on later this month if she can't renegotiate payments with the bank.

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123620847691933901.html (subscription)

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A14

[1776Forever]

1. Anyone know if the new SCHIP Bill could help these people out? And if not why not? Read on>>

Obama Signs Children’s Health Insurance Bill
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: February 4, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/us/politics/05health.html?ref=policy

(snip)

The program, created with bipartisan support in 1997, is intended for children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but too little to afford private health insurance.

The new bill originated in the House. On Wednesday, the House accepted minor changes made by the Senate, where the bill was approved last week by a vote of 66 to 32, with support from 9 of the 41 Republicans. The Congressional Budget Office says the bill will enable states to cover more than four million uninsured children by 2013, while continuing coverage for seven million youngsters. The bill will increase tobacco taxes to offset the increase in spending, estimated at more than $32 billion over four and a half years.

.........

I would think this is where the money should go. :shrug: