After several drafts on different topics for this forum, I finally decided what my debut blog post should cover. The answer is me and all those “Young Invincibles” like me.
My colleagues at the Baker Institute and Episcopal Health Foundation published a piece this week that focuses on those in my age bracket who have probably faced a similar situation as I did just last week.
My stats: 32-year-old divorced female, left job at a prestigious cancer center to embark on a new journey as an independent consultant and health policy scholar at the Baker Institute.
This meant that I also left behind a health insurance plan that ended March 31. To be honest, I thought it ended on March 12, so I rushed over to healthcare.gov to sign up for my own plan, as paying for COBRA was a little out of my price range as a struggling entrepreneur with an academic appointment. It was surprisingly streamlined, modern-looking and took about 30 minutes, as opposed to a few months ago when I tried to access the site to no avail.
So yes — I have Obamacare. Actually, I technically have a great plan through a private insurer that I applied for using the marketplace. For me, healthcare.gov was perfectly timed, but more importantly, perfectly priced. My new coverage was set to begin on April 1, 2014. I was a bit concerned that there was going to be about a two-week gap in coverage, but I thought, “What could happen in two weeks?” — better known as “Young Invincible” Mistake #1.
On Tuesday, March 25, two of my three dogs got into a fight over dinner and my left pinky finger got stuck in between. Now this is not the first time these two ladies (I’ll stay away from the other word) have argued, nor do I anticipate it to be the last, but it was the first time that I was severely affected.
The bite I received and so diligently took care of for a day-and-a-half ended up being severely infected by the next night. At the advice of my two best friends, one being a surgeon and the other an occupational therapy assistant, I headed straight to the ER, but frantically thinking of every potential person in my phone that is good with a scalpel — heck, I was ready to do it myself.
According to the CDC, 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year, 1 in 5 need medical attention, and in 2012, more than 27,000 people had to have reconstructive surgery because of their bite. The WHO reports that 3 percent –18 percent of those bitten develop infections and between 10 and 20 fatalities occur. Untreated infections can lead to limb amputation and even death.
Full-on panic set in after a shot of antibiotics and an 8:00 a.m. referral to a Houston hand surgeon. Hand surgery was not planned for these two weeks without coverage. As someone who has studied health care, specifically the cost of health care, I knew I would be set back a bit if I had to pay out of pocket. Could I wait till April 1, please? Apparently not — an untreated infection like mine could lead to amputation and death. I’d find a way to pay for it, even if I had no clue at the time how that would occur.
That’s when I realized I was one of those people. One of those “Young Invincibles” who thinks that nothing can go wrong, except when it does. I waited until very close to the last minute to sign up, which is “Young Invincible” Mistake #2.
This story has a good ending, though. I called my insurance company and they informed me that I was still covered through the end of the month, so I had a successful procedure to clean out the wound.
Why did I tell you this story? Because it’s real and because things happen unexpectedly. Had I not been covered, I would have had to figure out how to pay for it. The poor guy next to me at the surgery center crushed his finger at work, bone exposed and all — 18 years old and no insurance. Now he can’t work, has months of rehab ahead and is probably praying for some type of worker’s compensation.
At that moment I realized that regardless of politics, insurance doesn’t necessarily mean access, it means peace of mind.
If you weren’t able to enroll during the open enrollment period, you still have options to get coverage. First, go to healthcare.gov and see if you qualify for a special enrollment period. For most of the “Young Invincibles,” this includes having a complex situation regarding enrollment and events like having a baby, getting married, moving to a new area, or losing your current coverage. If you don’t qualify for a special enrollment period, then check out short-term coverage options through private insurers. Most can offer you a plan that will get you through until the next open enrollment in November. However, keep in mind that you will most likely have to pay the penalty as short-term policies aren’t considered minimal essential coverage as defined by the Affordable Care Act; still, having no coverage at all could potentially cost you more.
Heidi I. Wied, MHA, MPH (’14), FHFMA is a health policy scholar at Rice University’s Baker Institute. Her research focuses on issues involving care at the end of life, development of patient-reported outcomes and methods of cost accounting for health care organizations and payers. She is the former director of the Institute for Cancer Care Innovation at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Her finger is healing beautifully thanks to Dr. Daniel Womac and Amy Fuqua, OTA, CLT, forcing her to seek medical attention.