Month: December 2019

Insurance Companies are Vile

A December 2, 2019 press release on UnitedHealth Group announced that “revenues for 2019 are expected to approximate $242 billion, with net earnings to approach $14.25 per share and adjusted net earnings to approach $15 per share.”  Cool, cool.

UnitedHealth Group is ranked 6th on the Fortune 500 list. The CEO of UnitedHealth Group, David Wichmann, received a total compensation of $18.1 million in 2018, according to an April 22, 2019 article in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

A July 18, 2019 article in The Washington Post reported that “Two families of children with a rare and debilitating disease celebrated Thursday after UnitedHealthcare reversed previous denials and approved coverage for a $2.1 million gene therapy.” The article further stated, “UnitedHealth Group’s chief medical officer, Richard Migliori, said in an interview Thursday that public attention on the families’ plight played no role in the reversal. He said the decisions were based on clinical evidence.” Okay, sure, Jan. OF COURSE, NEGATIVE MEDIA ATTENTION PLAYED A ROLE IN THE REVERSAL.

According to a March 6, 2019 Jurist item, a “federal judge ruled Tuesday against UnitedHealth Group and its subsidiary United Behavioral Health, saying the insurer used overly restrictive guidelines to improperly deny benefits to thousands of mentally ill insureds.”

A May 1, 2019 article found on BenefitsPro.com reported that a federal judge “who survived prostrate cancer has stepped down from a putative class action lawsuit over a health insurance company’s ‘immoral and barbaric’ denial of a radiation treatment.”

Read it here for yourself.  “It is undisputed among legitimate medical experts that proton radiation therapy is not experimental and causes much less collateral damage than traditional radiation. To deny a patient this treatment, if it is available, is immoral and barbaric.”

These stories are not hard to find. Insurance companies will fight and claw for every penny. They raise our deductibles and out of pocket expenses until the point where we forgo important surgeries or medication just to live. A December 2019 Gallup poll recently announced: “A record 25% of Americans say they or a family member put off treatment for a serious medical condition in the past year because of the cost, up from 19% a year ago and the highest in Gallup’s trend.”

Yeah, I am one of these people. I am putting off a couple of surgeries because I cannot afford the deductible, plus I cannot afford to earn 70% percent pay on top of that. Once I pay off my basement waterproofing debt, I could perhaps afford to have the surgeries I need done for [redacted].

CNBC reported on February, 11, 2019: “A new study from academic researchers found that 66.5 percent of all bankruptcies were tied to medical issues —either because of high costs for care or time out of work.”

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The December Gallup poll also stated:

Reports of delaying treatment for a serious condition jumped 13 percentage points in the past year to 36% among adults in households earning less than $40,000 per year while it was essentially flat (up a non statistically significant three points) among those in middle-income and higher-income households.

As a result of the spike in lower-income households this year, the gap between the top and bottom income groups for failure to seek treatment for a serious medical condition widened to 23 percentage points in 2019. The income gap had averaged 17 points in the early years of Barack Obama’s presidency, but narrowed to an average 11 points in the first few years after implementation of the ACA, from 2015 to 2018.

I live alone and I’m single. I worry about the next medical crisis frequently, and if that’s going to be the one that forces me to sell my house, car or camera gear. What am I going to have to pay to stay alive? I have had my loved ones go, “Oh, well, your insurance company will cover you,” and not necessarily take my fears seriously. If given the opportunity, my insurance company will drop me because I’m expensive to keep alive and healthy. 

So congrats, UnitedHealth Group, on your stellar year! People are forgoing medical procedures and rationing medication while you all celebrate a profitable year. Good job, guys.

 

Richmond Marathon Recap

For my latest marathon recap, I thought I about adding some inspirational running quote meme at the beginning, but I couldn’t find one that perfectly summed up how I felt about this race. I am the World’s Okayest Runner, and I would like to explain why I no longer want to run stupid long distances anymore.

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I want to preface this by saying that I worked with a coach for this training cycle, and she was amazing. I would not have even gotten to the start line at the Richmond marathon without her guidance and training plan. I hope my thoughts and feelings about running stupid long distancdes do not cast any negative light on her or her coaching.

I thought I had a more difficult time with my long runs during this training cycle. The heat and humidity never seemed to relent, and I ended most runs feeling like I just went through hell and back. I know a lot of people will say, “Those runs just mean you’ll go so much faster when it gets colder!” However, when each run feels like a battle and you end each one feeling sweatier than you ever thought possible, it can affect someone’s motivation and by someone, I mean, mine. I just felt defeated.

A month and a half before the race, I injured my left shoulder and had to refrain from cross training and strength training. I honestly haven’t the foggiest on what I did to injure my shoulder, which is the same one I hurt a week before the Pittsburgh marathon. Unlike the Pittsburgh marathon, this 2nd go around with the shoulder pain lasted a lot longer and felt way more intense. I could still run and do my training runs since I wasn’t swinging my arms around wildly as I ran.

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The week before Richmond, I was finishing a track workout when my groin muscle felt tight but not pulled or anything. “Weird,” I thought that day but never gave it much thought. I had a pulled groin muscle 10 or so years ago, and this definitely did not give me the same “Oh Crap” feeling.

On Race Day, everything felt as good as it was going be. I did not wake up with any pain in my shoulder or groin. That second part turned out to not be true around mile 6 or 8 when I was making good time. My groin began to ache as I ran, and now and then, I shook my leg and hip out in a futile attempt to loosen something up.

The wind played a big factor in the race for me. While it wasn’t freezing weather or anything, it was chilly and the slightly above normal winds made it pretty darn cold at times. The absolute worst part of the marathon was the bridge, which ended up being the start of the Wall. As the wind whipped my face and made my fingers numb, I thought, “Well, this isn’t going to end the way you had hoped for.” All of us were running against the wind, and I am sure my eyes were not the only ones fighting watery eyes.

After the bridge, the Wall showed up, and from then on, it was a battle and I’m pretty sure I lost. My groin pain got worse, and around mile 21 or 22, the other side of my groin started hurting as well. I wonder if this is the result of the cold not letting up and my body never having gotten comfortable.

The downhill finish at the Richmond Marathon was supposed to be a welcome relief to runners at the end of the race. For me, the downhill finish line made my groin muscle scream, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” A volunteer coach toward the end saw my face and the struggle, and she ran with me for a short bit. I told her that my groin hurt, and she said, “After you finish, keep moving. Don’t stop moving.” The Richmond volunteers were absolute champs and amazing.

When I crossed the finish line, I unleashed what I was holding back for 18 or so miles. I started crying but not because I was overcome with emotion – I was overcome with pain. Some poor girl handed me my finisher medal and said “…. congratulations?” to me, as I took the medal from her.

I was very cold before the race.
I mean, really cold.

I can now say I am a four-time marathonner, and that’s how it’s going to be for the time being. For a hot minute, I thought I would train for a 5th marathon in the spring and perhaps do a 50K race in June, and then say See YA to long distances. As soon as I crossed the finish line, my face stained with tears, I knew that Richmond would be my last marathon for the time being. Between the shoulder and groin, I am not convinced that I am built for stupid long distances.

I am burnt out and disheartened. No matter how much effort I put forth and how hard I work for a marathon, I keep getting the same results. I am looking forward to dropping down to half marathons again. Plus, my busy season at work will be kicking into high gear very soon (like, as soon as I get back from Thanksgiving break). I need to take away any voluntary stressors since work is more important than running.

The beauty of all this is I get to figure out what I want to do next, and then work on achieving that goal with a smile on my face and a spring to my step.

I want to end this recap by memorializing some of the cool things I saw during the Richmond marathon race:

  • A man dressed in an inflatable T-rex costume for the full marathon. From what I heard, he finished the whole race in that costume and in an impressive time.
  • An elderly man with a cane was in the middle of the road during mile 20 or 21. He was borderline heckling us. “I thought this was a race, but this might be the end of it because y’all are WALKING.” Haha, dude. Give us a break. This is a lot of miles!
  • This college-aged girl – who had been hanging out on a porch with a couple of dudes and cheering on runners for the race – shouted, “THAT IS THE CUTEST FUCKING DOG I HAVE EVER SEEN” at this middle aged couple just walking a golden retriever. TBH, it was a really cute golden retriever, and I totally get her intense response to the dog.
  • A DJ at one of the music stations was calling out runners individually by their Bib. I had the pleasure of hearing, “Huffman… rules. That’s right you do.” I gave a fist bump, a la John Bender at the end of the Breakfast Club.
  • My friends Abbie and Naomi at the end cheering me when everything hurt and I was questioning all my life’s choices. My friends are pretty damn awesome.
I’m trying to smile here but it might be more of a grimace.