Tiffany in Hagerstown, Maryland

Tiffany in Hagerstown, Maryland
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

Tiffany doesn’t have a job, nor does she have health insurance. As a single mom, her daughter gets assistance through the state. For herself, she did have to go to the emergency room one time last year but as she didn’t fill out the form for medical assistance in time (there was a three-month time limit ), she ended up owing $4,000. Now she’s being taken to court by the hospital, Washington County. “I get phone calls every day from the bill collectors,” she tells me. “And I’m scared to go back to the doctor for anything including my ‘frozen shoulder’.

With some trepidation, she told me she knew somebody who was threatened with jail for not responding to court summons for a medical bill. “It's not a good situation to be in,” she told me.

Despite her unhappy troubles, Tiffany insisted on smiling when I took her picture.

Tamara in Hagerstown, Maryland

Tamara in Hagerstown, Maryland
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

Tamara told me, “She was lucky having health insurance.” Knowing generally that lack of insurance was a problem, she didn’t have any particular personal stories to share. But when I asked about health reform, she said, simply enough, that, “More should be done.”

Patrick in Hagerstown, Maryland

Patrick in Hagerstown, Maryland
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

Patrick has been on and off insurance all his life. “More off than on,” he further clarified for me. “My credit rating is trashed because of ‘medical stuff.’” And in the 80s he had a skull injury. “I actually had insurance but not everything was covered so I just couldn’t pay.” He seemed relaxed for someone for whom the system seemed not to work—forced into debt, even with insurance, and now suffering the consequence of ruined credit. But perhaps one gets used to such predicament.

Gayla in Hagerstown, Maryland

Gayla in Hagerstown, Maryland
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

Gayla told me that she and her husband have been “very lucky.” They’ve had employer-provided insurance through Verizon—“pretty good insurance,” she told me. but Frontier is buying the West Virginia assets of the company, so in ‘the transition’, as she put it, they have no idea what it’ll mean for them. This is important because her son stepson has cystic fibrosis (CF). At age 23 he’s a real survivor. He’s done well but lately, from an insurance standpoint, it’s gotten very complicated.

Based on doctor’s orders, he’s strictly limited to very light work, at a maximum of 30 hours a week. So essentially, as Gayla told me, “He’s stuck with a part-time employment status.” Insurance on his own is not a possibility,” she added. “And he can’t get SSI because he actually can work a little.” And while Verizon promised to cover him (as part of their employer-based coverage) even into adulthood, Gayla and her husband don’t know if that agreement will be honored by the new company. She doubts that it will be.

“It sounds like there are so many cracks in the system,” I said.

“Yes. It’s a real problem. And it’s not abstract—my son’s life depends on it.”

Hagerstown Herald-Mail

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