Frank in Frederick, Maryland

Frank in Frederick, Maryland
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

Frank’s story centers around his fiancé. She’s a breast cancer survivor. The chemotherapy, according to Frank, “‘cured’ the cancer but devastated her body.” She continues to have health problems,” he told me. These include diabetes and psoriatic arthritis for which she is treated with methotrexate and Enbril injections. She had been getting her medications through PAC (Physicians Assistance Care of Maryland) but, as Frank explained to me, “Only the diabetes medicines qualified and those she got through this program were less effective than what she was previously taking.” Now that she is working, she is no longer eligible for the program (which requires an income of less than $1,400 a month). Her new job offers health insurance but, “the premiums are so high that if she gets the policy, there’d be no money for anything else.” Getting health insurance, would “make it impossible for her to live,” Frank told me. “And, even with the policy, the medications would be too expensive.”

“Basically,” Frank summarized for me, “without healthcare, she has pain and suffering, can't get out of bed and so could lose the job.”

“That's terrible,” I said.

“Oh, it could be worse I guess,” he replied, shaking his head.