North Carolina rejected Medicaid expansion. Its uninsured residents now stare down a pandemic.
Every six months Penny Wingard's doctor in Charlotte, North Carolina, checks her white blood cell count even though she can't afford the tests. After a brutal round of chemotherapy for stage 2 breast cancer in 2014 left her with chemical burns, Wingard has a compromised immune system and no health insurance.
When she lost that coverage, more medical issues followed: She had a brain aneurysm and then the chemo caused Wingard, 56, to go temporarily blind before she underwent cornea surgery. Her medical debt through all this has ballooned to more than $25,000 — an amount she has no hope of ever paying off as a part-time Lyft driver.
"You didn't ask for any of this, and you didn't ask to get sick," Wingard said, as her voice broke and she began to cry. "You know, it's not something that you went out there and said, 'Oh, OK,' you know. You didn't ask for any of it. And it is a burden. It really is a burden."
With required doctor visits and medicine, her bills are still adding up and the debt collectors' calls haven't stopped. The drugs she needs also make her more susceptible to the common cold, the flu and now the coronavirus.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/this-state-rejected-medicaid-expansion-its-uninsured-residents-now-stare-down-a-pandemic/ar-BB11JEPc?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=hplocalnews
= new reply since forum marked as read
