Last month I was diagnosed with melanoma on the inside of my right eye. His vision was blurry, so he went to an ophthalmologist immediately. He found what he called “freckles” on my eye and made an urgent referral to an ophthalmologist.
The ophthalmologist diagnosed a “large melanoma” in my right eye. Dr. Google told my wife that if she had a large melanoma in her eye, his survival rate at five years was less than 50%. She fell apart. I was sent to an eye oncologist and was hospitalized the next day. She diagnosed melanoma as “small.” It’s a function of thickness, she said, and has a much higher chance of long-term survival than I thought.
The recommended treatment was a radiation plaque sewn directly onto the eyeball. Everyone moved quickly. Two weeks after my diagnosis, I was in the operating room. Since the risk of metastasis is increasing day by day, it was necessary to respond quickly.
But the fact that an insurance company is involved also increases my risk of a bad outcome.
Other developed countries have trouble understanding the US healthcare system. Here, we recommend setting up a for-profit entity between ourselves and our healthcare: health insurance. As you can imagine, this creates a huge conflict of interest for insurance companies. They make a profit by collecting premiums from you and then denying you coverage.
There are two situations already happening with my current health scare. I soon received a letter from the insurance company reassuring me about the coverage. (By the way, this is the largest health insurance company in the US)
The treatment was to place a radiation plaque on my eye and remove it after a week. The installation went without a hitch. The day before it was scheduled to be removed, I received a phone call from the hospital saying, “The insurance company has not approved the removal.” I said, “Huh?”
So we called insurance. They said that such an approval would take him three weeks. The hospital said I would have to sign a liability waiver to have the surgery and indicated that I would be financially responsible if the insurance did not pay. So I told them they wouldn’t pay if we signed a waiver.
The doctor told me that the source would destroy my vision if left too long, so I had to get it out immediately. And this, in my eyes, was a regulated nuclear source that prohibited me from being with other people. And right before the surgery, like literally an hour before we were in the waiting room, insurance denied surgery to remove it. So we have to fight them. Just another stress in this whole thing.
Second thing. My oncologist said the most important thing now is to determine if the cancer has spread. That’s the biggest factor in determining whether the results are good or bad. He ordered a full body PET scan of him. The insurance company refused it. They said, “This melanoma was in his eye. I don’t think the rest of his body needs to be checked.”
In fact, the woman who checked me in for surgery to remove plaque was originally from Canada. I have to pay the deductible and the copay, what is that?”
I hate this system with a burning passion. And I am lucky. At least I have insurance. It’s hard to imagine someone going through this without insurance.
I have lived in Germany, Scotland and Holland. I have firsthand experience with universal healthcare in these countries. What we have in the United States is an abomination.
