LEFT
OUT
She spent eight days in the hospital, she says, and she never received a bill. It was clear enough
that she could not pay.
A hospital spokeswoman declined to discuss the cost of Johnson’s care, citing patient confidentiality restrictions, but estimated
that the typical stay there runs
upwards of $1,000 a day.
Johnson’s doctors discharged
her with strict instructions not to
go back to work, she says, and with
a voluminous list of prescriptions.
Her son, Dustin, went online
and filled out her Medicaid application. Soon, she had in han d
a Medicaid card. She took it to
the pharmacy and brought home
the shelf-full of pills the doctors
ordered, while surrendering minimal co-pays — typically just a dollar or two. She made regular follow-up visits to the doctors, who
adjusted her medications when
her stomach bothered her or when
she felt dizzy.
Her health stabilized. Her
pain receded.
But this past spring, another
letter came from the state, this
one informing her that her disability payment put her over the
income threshold for Medicaid.
So ended her subsidized trips to
HUFFINGTON
02.03.13
the pharmacy.
Forced to fend for herself, she
has instead frequented a local
Walmart, where she is able to purchase the pills that she needs a
few at a time, but never enough
for a full course. She visits a community nonprofit pharmacy for the
poor that provides her some of her
needed medication, but not all.
In short, she takes what pills
she can get when she is able to af-
“IT JUST DOESN’T SEEM RIGHT TO ME.
IT JUST DOESN’T SEEM FAIR.”
ford them, an ad hoc arrangement
that has seen her symptoms return
with a vengeance.
She recently paid $25 to visit
a subsidized clinic where a doctor warned her that her kidney is
now failing — probably because
of the effects of her medication.
She could soon require dialysis.
Should that come to pass, she has
no idea what she will do.
Not for the first time — and
probably not for the last — she
diagnosed her own condition in
starkly simple terms.
“I don’t have insurance,” she said.
“I don’t have any money. I pray to
God I get my Medicaid back. I pray
every day, because I’ve got
no insurance for anything.”