| Zusia® was created after an insurance company rejected my claim for a new wheelchair. The claims department decided that I didn’t need a new wheelchair. I disagreed. My doctors disagreed.
I appealed the rejection of my insurance claim. My kind husband wanted to spare me the burden of a protracted appeals process by simply writing a check for a wheelchair. But, I refused. My husband and I promptly pay substantial insurance premiums, and I believed that coverage of my claim was the company’s contractual and ethical obligation. I also believed that the rejection of my claim involved critical issues within the community of people with disabilities. People with disabilities are disproportionately poor when compared with other groups. My dispute with the insurance company represented a battle that I could afford to lose as an individual, but not as a member of a community where many members confront economic and health care burdens. who can’t afford to buy a wheelchair? What happens to those who can’t afford, or otherwise meet, the requirements for health insurance? These questions are rhetorical because the fate of uninsured or under-insured people with disabilities is painfully clear. Our homeless shelters and streets are the alternative care systems. Stoicism is the alternative assistive device. I won my battle with the insurance company, but this successful outcome required my ability to marshal resources that are not easily available to many people. Money, private transportation, medical equipment, and personal assistance were some of these resources. Advanced formal education also appeared to be a prerequisite! The questions that the insurance company required me to answer |
were written in language so complex that my doctoral dissertation on pulmonary disease seemed like a fun read!I felt that I needed to be a disability “know-it-all” in order to file a routine insurance claim. And so, I decided to become one. Zusia® provides practical resources to people with medical illness and disabilities. Why? Because good resources even the playing field—and great resources can determine who wins the dispute with the insurance claims department! |
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| Click above if you would like to learn about Dr. Jackie’s Early Years and Later Understandings. | ||
