Death by Insurance

My partner died of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). He was only 28 years old when he passed away. He was uninsured when he was diagnosed with AML. The only program he qualified for was Texas Medicaid. He applied for Social Security Disability and was approved for disability however he did not qualify for Medicare. He did not qualify for Medicare because he had never paid into the Medicare program. They told us that he had a two year waiting period before he could obtain Medicare coverage. The doctors stated that his only hope to save his life was a bone marrow transplant. His brother was an exact match and now we believed we were on our way to saving his life. Then came the next obstacle, we were told that no Hospital would complete a full bone marrow transplant with just Medicaid insurance coverage. So we tried to add him to my health insurance however we learned my employer would not cover him under my insurance because they do not recognize same sex partnerships. Please note that my employer is also “the 11^th largest blood and marrow transplantation (BMT) center in the country and our program was the 5^th in the nation to receive accreditation from the Foundation for the accreditation of Cellular Therapy.” In addition, my employers program is “nationally recognized as a “Center of Excellence” among multiple insurance carriers.” With all this said we diligently tried to obtain healthcare coverage for him, this was our only hope. Every insurance company we contacted stated they would deny his coverage for pre-existing conditions. We soon learned that the only option would be the Texas High Risk Pool Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance however this insurance required a 1 year waiting period due to pre-existing conditions. He keep fighting the leukemia day in and day out knowing that his brother was an exact match we just need the insurance or cold hard cash. I started working extreme amounts of over time 22 hour days. I worked as many hours as possible. We had to save up enough cash to afford the cost associated with the Texas High Risk Pool Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance. On August 1^st we made our first payment and another payment on September 1^st. He would finally have the private health insurance coverage and the insurance was effective September 1^st. Around mid September we received letters from the Blue Cross Blue Shield and Texas Medicaid stating that he had been approved for a bone marrow transplant. This was great news for everyone however he was on his 14^th round of chemotherapy. Everyone was praying he would pull through like he did each and every time before. Our hope, light, and joy left us on September 29^th, 2007 after more then a year long battle with leukemia. Ironic is it if he would have had health insurance his success rate would have been 80%. This is based on the advances we have made in Science with BMT. Most of the advances are funded by federal grants thus allowing insurance companies to be the biggest leaches of the world. They are slowing sucking the life out of each and every one of us.