Hate hate health insurance.

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I just want to vent a little. Was laid off along with a lot of people back in 2008 (and I was 8.5 mo pregnant at the time). Of course trying to find work along with so many other people did not bode well for me, fast forward to March 2011 realized one day I was having bloody nipple discharge, tried to do the right thing and get private insurance. After jumping through hoops got insurance in June, went to a dr. right away and tried to be as truthful as I could saying I think it started as far back as Feb (saw brown spots in my bra, always thought it was food or something) well of course Ins took that is "pre-existing" condition and would not cover my mammo or anything related to my breast. Found out I needed to have core biopsy because of microcalcifications, long story short, was able to get financial aide through the hospital and ended up getting an excisional biopsy (could not do core, too close to nipple). Everything seemed fine, kept paying for insurance(oh and ins keeps increasing every couple of months saying new rate increase), after 6 months noticed I was still having discharge had another mammo and ended up getting a galactogram(worse pain ever) too (ins paid by that time) and they thought it may have been left over blood from the biopsy since it was in the same area and suggested to come back in 6 mo if I still had discharge. Of course I still have the discharge 6 mo later but I did not want another ductograph as it was so painful for me. So they did another mammo and ultrasound this time. Ultrasound confirmed I did have discharge and suggested ductogram. I declined and dr. suggested wait 6 mo for follow up. Well this time ins won't cover it as they say they will only cover 1 a year. So basically I have to pay for everything out of pocket. I can't pay for ins and this (only working part time)so I decided to cancel my ins. Of course, I forgot about the follow up and get a call from the Dr. office telling me I need to schedule for a mammo soon. I notice there still is a slight discharge, I just want to forget it and ignore it. I'm tired of worrying about it and each time it comes back as nothing and tired of insurance being so high and barely covering anything that I can't afford to pay it anymore.

Thanks for letting me vent. I don't know what I'm going to do about the discharge, I think I'll just have to wait a bit until I can afford ins again.

Comments

  • dlb823
    dlb823 Member Posts: 9,430
    edited March 2013

    Hi, Mulligan ~ I'm so sorry about the difficulty you've had getting a thorough work up without insurance.  I know from experience that very often doctors and hospitals will significantly discount charges for people who don't have insurance, plus offer payment plans.  If you decide you want additional followup, I'd suggest going to a breast surgeon/specialist.  I think that's the type of specialist you need to see to get to the bottom of what's going on with the discharge.

    I also think women who don't have insurance can qualify for free mammograms.  Here's a starting place:

    http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/nbccedp/

    (((Hugs)))  Deanna

  • Mulligan
    Mulligan Member Posts: 205
    edited March 2013

    Thanks Deanna I will look into that. :)

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