National Nurses United

Profile:3 6/7/07 2:51 PM Page 22 originated from five different divisions of the hospital and, according to Allen, they didn't share information or talk to one another. Meanwhile, Blue Shield's Chino and Beattyville offices seemed incapable of coordinating claims processing on their end. Acting as a liaison between the hospital and Blue Shield, Allen felt almost like an employee of both. "It took 38 calls to the hospital just to get them to start sending things to Beattyville," said Allen. "Then I'd talk to Beattyville and they'd say, 'The hospital needs to send us A, B, C, D, E, and F. And the doctor has not sent these two forms.' Then the hospital would argue they did send it, but I'd have to convince them to send it again. I was struggling so hard just to help the hospital get paid. And all this started days after Cynthia was in the hospital." Allen says that only in mid April has Blue Shield started to pay some of the claims. Since July 2006, though, the couple says they have spent from $1000 to $3000 per month out of their own pocket for Campbell's medication and drugs that insurance won't cover. One of her anti-nausea medications costs $116 a pill. They've drained their savings, and without Campbell's salary, have little money coming in. To this day, Allen says he still receives large packages of paperwork returned from Chino. And the last indignity? Campbell's short-term policy is set to expire July 19. Blue Shield has told their insurance agent that they will not cover her Cynthia Campbell, RN shares her story at a May 8 rally in Sacramento for single-payer healthcare. "The tragedy of the situation is that the healthcare mess is totally preventable. It's a product of greed, not a product of lack of resources. There's this middleman mentality that you've got to get profit to the insurance company. There's no logic. It's obscene that in this, the richest country in the world, we can't take care of our own people." past her current policy. Though the cancers seem to be held at bay for the time being, she requires CAT scans every two to three months. There's also always the very real possibility that the cancers will come back and that she will need further treatment and hospitalization. Allen is talking to social workers and desperately researching any and every option: Social Security disability, Medi-Cal, any other insurance. So far, nothing has panned out. "We feel like somehow we're street people," says Allen. "All of our lives, we've paid into the system. This is a huge betrayal. Why are we in this position? Where do we go? Where do we turn? I really do not know what we're going to do." All this stress might have broken a weaker couple. But Campbell and her husband are no ordinary pair. Married 12 years now, their short courtship started when a sleepless Campbell tuned into a latenight TV broadcast about humanitarian air missions to rescue 22 REGISTERED NURSE refugees from war-torn Africa. The program ran just an audio interview with the pilot, Allen, and Campbell was drawn to his voice. She spent months tracking him down and even donated money to his charity, Air Care International. They soon agreed to meet, and instantly recognized each other at the airport. "A few months after we met, I told him I would marry him," said Campbell with a big grin on her face. And they did. "I was 40 at the time, and had given up on the thought that I'd ever meet someone I could ever marry. And as soon as you think that, Allen comes into my life." They each describe the other as their best friend, and this ordeal has clearly brought them even closer together and united in wanting to share their story in hopes that public policy will change to provide insurance and real healthcare access to everyone, no matter what. "The tragedy of the situation is that the healthcare mess is totally preventable," said Campbell. "It's a product of greed, not a product of lack of resources. There's this middleman mentality that you've got to get profit to the insurance company. There's no logic. It's obscene that in this, the richest country in the world, we can't take care of our own people." I Lucia Hwang is editor of Registered Nurse. W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G M AY 2 0 0 7

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