"My sister Becky is a severe adult asthmatic and has struggles for 10+ years just to breathe. She has been told for years that her job was killing her slowly. But, as this was her only source of insurance she was unable to change jobs or quit. Her medical bills have been taking every spare dime she has, and no other company in their right mind would hire a person who cannot complete an interview without wheezing audibly. She has been averaging a hospitalization every 6 weeks for the past 2-3 years. Finally in March of this year her pulmonologist refused to allow her to go back to work and placed her on leave, she filed for her short term disability insurance and only received partial payment as this had already been mostly exhausted for previous hospitalizations. She has been without income of any kind since March of this year, and has moved in with our elderly Mother who is on a fixed income and unable to provide more than a roof over her head and food on the table. Her short term disability expired and she has applied for long term disability insurance but they are stalling and have been reviewing her records for 3 months and have yet to make a determination, they feel asthma is a kids disease and that she should be able to work, despite the volumes of information provided by multiple pulmonologists and frequency of her hospitalizations.
Becky is back in the hospital right now and received devastating news today. She is out of options as no medications work for her and her only option is Bronchial Thermoplasty. her insurance company has denied multiple requests for this procedure to be paid stating it is too "new". She would have to pay for the procedure herself. The pulmonoligist has stated he will waive his fees to perform the procedure but she will still be responsible for the hospital costs. The pulmonologist states her lungs are failing as we speak and this is her only option.
Is there any way I can get her some help? She is only 54 years old. She has had no life except hospitals and worry over medical bills for years and now she is told there is a possiblity of helping her but she can't have it done because her insurance company won't pay.
Dee Usrey. Write to her here: d.pecina@hotmail.com
