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Rising Costs
Delayed Care Costs More
Damian Sanchez is a heating and air subcontractor. He is his own boss and must purchase insurance in the, often expensive, individual market. Doing this, Sanchez quickly realized how slim his insurance options really are. Major medical coverage, at $170 per month, was all he could afford. That so, it was a responsible decision. Although his insurance didn’t cover doctor visits, it takes care of hospitalization — bills that would largely be beyond his financial reach should a medical emergency happen. Unfortunately Damian could only keep up these payments for two years, then business slowed and he had no choice but to let his insurance premiums lapse. A little while later he stepped on a nail.
Damian strongly wanted to visit a doctor but worried about the costs associated with the visit. Nine times out of ten most cuts and scrapes heal themselves, Damian thought, and he cleaned out the wound. But his toe only got worse. After three days it became swollen and bloody so Damian visited a community clinic for antibiotics. Since Damian delayed care and had not received a tetanus shot the day of the accident, doctors were worried and scheduled several return visits to check on the toe’s progress. By the end of that week, a shocking diagnosis was given: the antibiotics were being overpowered by the infection and his toe needed to be amputated. “I thought they were crazy,” Sanchez says.
Desperately seeking a second opinion, Damian has been waiting five hours in the emergency room of Stroger Hospital, praying for anything but amputation. The anxiety of losing his toe is compounded by the costs that go along with surgery: anesthesia, recovery and hospital rooms. As it is, Damian already has a payment plan for the $1000 he owes the community clinic. If surgery is needed, Sanchez suspects that the two weeks he hasn’t worked will increase to a month or more. The bills just keep piling up. “This whole situation could have been avoided if I just had access to affordable primary care services,” Damian keeps thinking. “Chicago is raising money and spending millions of dollars to bring the Olympics here. Why can’t they put that same enthusiasm into getting their residents affordable health care?”
Sanchez is utterly stressed and distraught about the situation. He is kicking himself for letting his insurance lapse but still feels he had no choice. The health care crisis in Illinois is reaching dramatic proportions, and Cook County budget cuts have only made the situation worse. Our residents are facing grave consequences — preventable surgery, amputations, and sometimes death — those by far outweigh the cost of providing preventive primary care services. In his budget address on March 7th, Governor Blagojevich announced his proposal to expand health care coverage for Illinois. Please keep this momentum going. Call your legislators and let them know that you support quality, affordable health care for all Illinoisans.
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