Spending 20 Hours On Hold With Your Health Insurance

Written by Anthony Greco / Illustration by Roger Miller-Kim

I started chemo in April of 2020. Luckily, it came in the form of a pill shipped to my house. While the side effects were brutal, I only felt them when I stopped or started the medication. After I received my first dose, you can imagine my concern when my insurance company told me that I’d lost my coverage?!

I walked into work the next day and ask if I got fired. They looked equally baffled! It turns out that the chemo was initially approved by my dad’s insurance (which I’d told the hospital not to use) instead of my own plan — a mix-up that should have been solvable.

Nope.

After I spending all day on the phone with my insurance company, I was informed that my chemo has been denied because their doctor said I “didn’t need it.” Even when I explained that I was being treated by a team of top cancer doctors at the world’s best cancer hospital, they wouldn’t budge. The company’s excuse was that the drug was being used “off-label” (it has been developed for leukemia), but I think they didn’t want to pay the $400k-per-year cost. That healthcare CEO does need his 18th summer home, after all.

After a denial, I appealed, and they send my case to an arbiter. Meanwhile, I have no medication, and I’m being clobbered by side effects. I asked for an emergency dose, but was told it’s “not something they do.”

By this point, a pharmacist from Memorial Sloan Kettering, where I’m being treated, starts calling my insurance company herself. Right before the approval deadline, they tell her my case was denied again.

I am very fortunate to say I still received my meds through a grant program by the drug manufacturer, but the insurance DELAYED SENDING THE DENIAL UNTIL I WAS OUT OF OPTIONS. ALL I NEEDED WAS FOR THEM TO OFFICIALLY SAY NO. I had to wait another full week before I received the meds, and, while restarting them was incredibly rough, I’m glad to say I haven’t had problems getting them since.

Private insurance is a scam, and if you don’t think that yet, I formally invite you to spend 20 hours on hold with them, begging for medical treatment while they sit on their hands.

This was written by Anthony Greco (@el__greco) and illustrated by Roger Miller-Kim (@r_edgar_hoover)