Our disability insurance system is broken. 

 

Hartford, my disability insurer, denied my claim. They stated that my genetic mutation was a preexisting condition that I had sought treatment for before my policy began. In fact, it was only after my policy began that I even learned of my mutation. When I appealed, they hired two doctors to review my medical records. One wrote that I could work on the day of my mastectomy, the other that my mastectomy only disabled me for ten days. 

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Similarly, the Social Security Administration (SSA) denied my first claim. I spent hours filling out their online application and, later, paper documents they sent. Due to PMPS, this was painful and required taking more opioids. Months later, they claimed (1) one doctor did not submit non-existent medical records and (2) that I submitted my claim too early, which if true their portal should have caught. Forced to start a new claim from scratch, my second one is pending.

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Due to this broken system, I have not had any income for over a year and have forgone or postponed medical care. I know I am not alone in this. 

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My goal is to fix these broken systems. For example, private insurers, a rich, powerful lobby, wrote the federal statute that is supposed to regulate them. Predictably, they face no legal or financial consequences for denying payments to sick people who need this money for healthcare. Similarly, medical licensing needs to be stricter. On the other hand, SSA's processes are inefficient and onerous. These laws and policies need to be updated. 

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The first step to change is raising awareness. I want to pitch stories about private insurers and SSA denying disability claims arising from cancer treatment. If this has happened to you and you would like to appear in a news article about it, please contact me.  

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