Voices Across America

Catastrophic medical bill barely averted

Starr

State: Michigan
Congressional District: MI11

Diseases

Reproductive Disease

Issues and Challenges

Starr has encountered: Copay Issues, Insurance Issues, Medical Devices

My Story

At the age of 40, I was pregnant at for the first time with my miracle. My husband works for an automotive company and our insurance has a $7,000 deductible. To avoid a hospital bill I continued to work as an emergency room nurse. Two weeks before I was scheduled to give birth via c-section (because my son breech), the hospital flooded.

The nearest in-network hospital was 78 miles away. To complicate matters, if I didn't continue to work full time in the emergency room, I would not have enough vacation time to pay my maternity leave, and I was actively contracting each day as I went to work. Fortunately, the hospital managed to repair the damage caused by flood in time to safely deliver my now 18 month old son.

Had this not been possible, I would have been looking at a catastrophic out of network hospital delivery bill.

My Motivation and Inspiration

My story motivated me to partner with this organization and others to advocate for change in how we deliver our healthcare. Currently I work as a nurse practitioner in my community and my local nursing home and the greatest fears my patients verbalize are not their health care issues but how they will pay for their care.