Linda Green, a former press operator in a computer plant, looks back to a job which brought her excellent health insurance. She hopes a new job will offer strong benefits.
 

Medicaid: who is eligible
Lymphatic Cancer: patient's view
Lymphatic Cancer: the facts
Retroperitoneal Fibrosis
HMO: a definition

Linda Green is a former Press Operator for Fullarton Computer Industry in Winterville, NC.

She looks back to some great health insurance. She hopes she can get something like it again.

Green was unemployed for six months and lost her great insurance coverage. In this time her children were covered through Medicaid.

Green recently started a new job as a security guard in a Greenville mall. She says she hopes eventually she will get just as great coverage as she did from her last employer. 
 
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Green is thirty nine years old with two daughters. She worked with this industry for five years making computers for Gateway, IBM, and other computer companies on contract with Fullarton.

When she was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer, her specialist told her she needed to have surgery. 

Green would not accept that she cancer and put the intended surgery off for a year. The pain eventually grew so terrible she needed to have surgery in order to get rid of it .The surgery was supposed to take only one day, but Green did not leave the hospital for three days. She was out of work for one month.

She soon discovered she did not have cancer but had Retroperitoneal Fibrosis. According to Green, only thirteen of these cases have been seen in Duke Hospital of North Carolina.  It is a disorder caused by an aggregation of cells in the back of the abdomen, which may block the tubes which carry urine from the kidneys to the bladder.

Green's two daughters are Meg and Jen Joyner. These girls were hit by a car a few years ago. When this happened,Meg was sixteen and Jen was fourteen years old. 


WHAT THE OLD INSURANCE DID

Meg was injured worse than her sister, Jen. Meg was admitted to the hospital for an overnight visit so she could have surgery on her shoulder.  Since she stayed overnight the HMO insurance covered the surgery and her stay at the hospital. 

Meg needed to go to a rehabilitation specialist for a year at twenty dollars a treatment. Jen was treated and released which ended up costing seventy five dollars since she was not admitted overnight. 

When Green or her daughters needed to go to the Primary Care Physician the co-pay was ten dollars. The co-pay to visit a specialist cost twenty dollars. The first time to a doctor's office was a bit of a hassle due to paper work but Green says she never had problems during a visit. Green paid very little out of her pocket for the medications and surgery.

"From generic to name brand I spent five to thirty five dollars on medications," said Green.

Green had a HMO family plan with Signa Insurance Company. It covered herself and her two daughters. Green started the plan by paying twenty dollars a week and ended paying fifty eight dollars a week.

"My daughters and I have been to many specialists in Greenville, so the plan was great for us," said Green.

  

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My Name is Amy Joannou and I am a 21 year-old student at ECU. My major is communications. I am from Toms River, NJ.