Voices Across America

A year and 2 surgeries to get through step-therapy

Rachael

State: Ohio
Congressional District: OH10

Diseases

Eye Disease, Gastrointestinal Disease

Issues and Challenges

Rachael has encountered: Access to Expert Providers, Copay Issues, Insurance Issues, Invisible Illness, Job Insecurity / Loss, Premium Payments, Prior Authorization, Step-Therapy / Fail First, Underserved Community

My Story

Getting diagnosed with a chronic disease is a bittersweet feeling, because you are happy to know why you are sick, but sad to know that your life will forever look different. I felt this when I was first diagnosed with Crohn's Disease and shortly after when I was diagnosed with Uveitis.

Learning to live a life managing multiple chronic illnesses includes daily struggles, but one thing I didn't expect would be such an issue was learning to navigate barriers in our flawed healthcare system. Once I was finally set with a healthcare team and medication that was working for me, my insurance company made a decision that my medication was not covered anymore. I quickly went into a flare, which resulted in surgery. During this flare, I was forced to start step-therapy, even though all my medical providers knew what worked well. The insurance company denied multiple rounds of appeals. It took almost a year and two surgeries for my medication to be approved again.

My healthcare journey has taught me how to advocate for myself. I now want to advocate not only for myself but for others to ensure that our healthcare system doesn't prevent any patient from getting the care and treatment they need.