I have heard so many stories lately about nightmares people have been through with their health insurance--rising costs, loss of insurance, huge medical bills that weren't covered because of a technicality.

Lately, with all the possible health care reform in the air, more of these stories have surfaced, and they hit home: I very narrowly escaped a horror story of my own.

As I stated in my earlier article, The Good Cancer, I have had much medical attention since December of last year.  Let me provide a brief summary (dates are approximate):

Physical exam 12/08 (doctor found a thyroid lump)

Ultrasound 1/09

Biopsy 2/09

Consulted with an endocrinologist 3/09

Consulted with surgeon 3/09

Surgery 4/09

Complications from this surgery; 2 day hospital stay complete with several specialist consults, many tests and x-rays.

Follow-up with surgeon one week later

2nd surgery (no complications this time) exactly two weeks after the first

Follow-up with surgeon one week later

Follow-up with endocrinologist

Whole body scan 6/09

Radioactive iodine treatment 6/09

Whole body scan post-treatment 7/09

Long list.

Now... consider this.

I lost my job about two weeks before my first surgery.  What if I hadn't been eligible for COBRA?  What if my husband hadn't found a job just as I lost mine--and what if his job had a waiting period for health insurance?  As it turned out, I was eligible for COBRA, with the subsidy, and my husband was able to get health insurance right away--on the day of my second surgery, no less.

It wasn't really possible for me to say, hey doc, let me put off my cancer surgeries/treatment.  Nor would it have been possible for me to get health insurance on the free market with my pre-existing thyroid lump.

So I ask you, what could I have done?

I know I'm not the only one who has been in a situation like this, and there was such a fine line between the way the situation turned out, and complete financial ruin for my entire family.

Are there really people out there who feel that health care reform isn't at all necessary?  As it turned out for our family, the $700+/month we were paying for our family plan through my job ended up paying off.  But truthfully we couldn't afford it, and still can't.  Most of my friends, recent college grads, don't have health insurance.  I shudder to think what would happen if one of them got sick.

Can't we all just pull together and try to do something about all this?  It makes no sense to simply say, well, people should buy their own health plans, and if they can't, too bad.  I've heard some of the ideas that have been floating around the political world and there are some good ones.  No need to call me a socialist--I just don't want to have to worry about how I'll pay for my yearly body scans in the future.  Will I be able to afford to see whether my cancer came back?

(photo credit : http://www.thehealthculture.com/img/health-care-reform.jpg )