I don’t do this often, but I’m asking for help from you guys. I want you to read this post and tweet it and re-tweet it because it’s a story that needs to be told.
We’ve all had our battles with insurance companies, right? I had a pretty massive one with mine when I had Miss G and accidentally underpaid my monthly bill by $7.00 and they expected me to foot the entire bill. I kicked and I screamed and I got my way. They paid. I have a friend, however, who is not having the same luck. And the situation she faced was far more serious than the simple birth of a child.
Her name is Jennifer West Jablon and she only wanted one thing.
She wanted a chance to live.
Jennifer recently underwent a double mastectomy voluntarily because she had the BRCA1 gene. She’s young and she’s a single mom. She also has a family history of breast cancer. Her mother is one of five daughters, three of whom were diagnosed with breast cancer and one of the sisters died from it. Being a responsible mom, Jennifer went and had the test to find out if she was at risk. The news was not good. Her doctors told her she had an 85% chance of developing breast cancer by the time she was 40 and a 99% chance of developing it later in life. Her doctors advised her that the best possible route was to undergo a voluntary double mastectomy and that is exactly what she did. Because she is a single mother.
And she wants to live to raise her son.
Jennifer is also responsible financially. She took out two disability policies to pay for her five week recovery. (Editorial note: When I first posted this, I neglected to mention she took out the policy when she started her job over one year ago, not right before the surgery. At that time, she did not have her surgery planned. For anyone who was wondering about this, please see her note in the comment section.) The first company, Mutual of Omaha, was to pay 60% of her salary. The second, Colonial Life, was to pay a per diem to make up the difference. She paid her premiums. She went into this surgery knowing she was doing the best thing for her and her son and willingly put herself through a tremendous amount of pain and a ton of reconstructive surgery for one thing.
She wants to live.
However, after paying her premiums and doing all the right things and getting the recommendations from the doctors the insurance companies now do not want to pay what they rightfully owe her. Jennifer has tried to reason with them, even sending letters to them explaining the situation and how she certainly would have cost them much more money down the road with radiation, chemotherapy and everything else that goes with a cancer diagnosis.
It’s also important to note that her primary health insurance carrier deemed this medically necessary.
Her emails to the companies that denied her were Scientific:
“I made this decision to have a Prophylactic Mastectomy based on a recommendation by my Surgical Breast Oncologist, Dr. David Euhus, MD, at UT Southwestern Medical Center who has received the following accolades for his work with breast cancer: Marilyn R. Corrigan Distinguished Chair in Breast Cancer Surgery (2003) and The George & Carol Poston Professorship in Breast Cancer Research (1999). I also attended several seminars on genetic breast cancer screening and treatment organized by FORCE (Facing our Risk Cancer Empowerment).”
…and Emotional:
“I am a single mom of a 7 year old boy so it is my responsibility to raise him as well as provide for his needs. In having the surgery, I feel like I am prolonging my lifespan, and to provide for his needs I took out two disability policies so that I could pay my bills.
I proactively took a step that could ultimately save my life and keep me from having to go through chemotherapy and/or radiation. It was neither an easy decision to make nor an easy procedure to endure. I was in surgery 12.5 hours of surgery followed by 12 hours in ICU and 4 more days in the hospital a total of 5 days inpatient care.”
…and finally POWERFUL:
“The costs to all parties involved would be more significant had I waited to develop cancer and then seek treatment. The cost for me and my son could have been my life.”
Jennifer did the right thing. She saved her life so she can be present for her son and help him to grow in to a strong and capable young man. And now, the insurance companies want to bicker with her over what is a small amount of money to them given the premiums they collect on a daily basis from trusting customers who expect them to honor their commitments when they most need it.
The only hope Jennifer has of recovering her money is to make as much noise as possible which is where you come in. If you would tweet or stumble this, you will be my personal hero. Until we all stand up for each other, the big insurance companies like Mutual of Omaha and Colonial Life will still keep taking advantage of the weakest among us when we really need it. The only hope she has right now to get the money they rightfully owe her is to make a bunch of noise.
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