Doing Battle With the Insurance Companies in a Fight to Stay Alive

[emily47017]

nytimes.com/2007/07/29/health/29OBSTACLES.html?ei=5088&en=529653a000c3b8b7&ex=1343361600&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

Mr. Hendrickson, a retired administrator for the YMCA and the Spina Bifida Association, had taken care in choosing his internist, Dr. Kristine Bordenave. They liked and trusted each other, and one morning, Dr. Bordenave canceled her other appointments to spend hours on the phone finding a major cancer center that would quickly admit him. It turned out to be the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

But his insurer, the Presbyterian Health Plan, refused to pay for treatment in Houston. The company insisted that the operation be done in Albuquerque and sent him a list of five local surgeons.

He went to M. D. Anderson anyway. But because Presbyterian would not pay, the hospital required a $5,000 deposit. Mr. Hendrickson and his wife had little money and normally threw away any credit cards mailed to them. But his wife happened to have one new card that she had not gotten around to cutting up yet. They decided that this was the one time when they should not worry about money, and they used the card to pay the deposit.

“I was a person who wanted to live,” Mr. Hendrickson said, adding that he assumed it would be cheaper for the insurance company to let him die.