Posts Tagged ‘healthcare reform debate’

At this time, Working Title Playwrights, along with Academy Theatre, is hosting a fund raising event in conjunction with an On Demand reading of two new, short plays by WTP members Curt Shannon and David Fisher.

Tickets are a mere $10 at the door, and we’ll have food donated by area restaurants and beer, wine and sodas for a cheap $2 each.

A silent auction will begin at 6pm, and the readings will begin at 7:30 p.m.  ALL proceeds – 100% of the door, bar and silent auction – will go toward helping our dear friend Allen Hagler with his cost of living during this most arduous time in his life.

WHERE:  Academy Theatre, 119 Center St., Avondale Estates, GA

WHEN:  Tuesday, November 17, 2009

DOORS OPEN: 6 p.m. for silent auction. New play readings begin 7:30 p.m. Silent auction will wrap up immediately following the talkback at the end of the second play.

COST:  $10 at the door, but if you don’t have the $10 DON’T LET THAT STOP YOU – PLEASE COME ANYWAY!

And if you’ve been moved by Allen’s story and want to help, you can make a contribution to his care. Click the pledgie.com ‘DONATE’ button below, or at the top right of column of this blog. Read the rest of this entry »

The good news: two of those prescriptions that Allen got filled were for two different kinds of morphine, so at least his pain was contained for the first time since his ordeal began.

The bad news: when we went to Grady Radiation the next day, the oncologists there were really terrific, but refused to begin his treatments when they learned his Grady Card hadn’t yet been renegotiated.  On the one hand, it is benevolent that the physicians tried to help him not go into insurmountable debt.  But I ask how benevolent is the system that requires such a choice of both doctor and patient? Read the rest of this entry »

At this time, Allen is physically unable to work, but because of his existing Grady Card co-pay assignment, we were made to go to the Unemployment Office where he (with the energy of a man deprived of an adequate oxygen supply) jumped through the hoops to prove he is, in fact, unemployed. This, by the way, is a point of emotional turmoil for his employers who truly, truly love Allen and would have kept him “on the books” forever, whether he could do the labor or not, just so he’d have some income during his recovery.

But the costs of oncology treatments and their related prescriptions are excessive – even through the community hospital, which would not cut him a break so long as he had a job. Read the rest of this entry »

As Allen continued to wait to hear back from the Veterans Administration, Dr. Janet managed an appointment for him at Grady and he did get a Grady Card just about a month before his cancer diagnosis. He was then diagnosed with Gerd – not the daughter of a Scandinavian giant, but acid reflux disease, which has ginormous heartburn and indigestion, and can lead to damage to the esophageal lining, and happens to be one of two leading causes of esophageal cancer—particularly in American men.

The doctor didn’t tell him that last part. Instead, he prescribed Nexium and Allen discovered he made approximately $500 too much per year for Grady to deem him truly poor when he was assigned his co-pay at $50 and 50% of all services and 100% of all prescriptions. He wasn’t made aware of this until he actually went to pay for his prescription of Nexium and it was a whopping $178. Read the rest of this entry »

Allen has been increasingly ill throughout the last year, losing between 40-50 pounds and unable to eat well since March. So many of us urged him to seek medical help. He refused at first, probably just being stubborn, believing whatever his problem was would go away on its own.

But when his symptoms worsened, he admitted that without health insurance he simply had no money for a doctor and no room on his credit cards to go into further debt. When things got bad enough, he finally agreed to see Dr. Janet Day of the Piedmont Health Clinic, a walk-in doctor whom I see periodically when I am unable to get into my regular doctor at the Veterans Administration.

OH! THE VA! Yes, Allen is a former Marine, honorably discharged with full health. Meaning that when being discharged he was informed- as every healthy, soon-to-be discharged service member is- that because he did not have a “service connected disability” the VA likely would not provide him benefits. Read the rest of this entry »

I am not looking to start a health care reform debate (or am I…?). I just want to present a real-life face and name with the issue. With Allen Hagler’s story, it’s my wish to provide encouragement and opportunity to those who STILL believe that good awaits the giver and receiver when helping out one’s fellow (wo)man. I share what’s on my heart as a member of the theatre community, where stories like this are all too commonly found.

You may want to hire a different actor for tonight. Or move the session to DeKalb General (grin). – text message received from Allen Hagler, 8:30 a.m., Oct. 5, 2009.

And so it began. Allen, an actor-member of the metro Atlanta theatre community and favorite Working Title Playwrights staple, had been admitted the night before through the emergency room for extreme abdominal pain. His ER CT scan revealed several masses: one large at the juncture of his esophagus and stomach, three more in his liver. The ER physician emphasized before sending him upstairs to his room that if he was in pain, to make sure he let the nurses know, because, “there’s no need for you to be in pain here.”

I spent several hours with him that day, talking about his hospitalization, all the questions he had floating in his mind about the what-if’s of his as yet undiagnosed condition. It was immediately apparent to me that my dear friend Allen, with whom I had bonded over new plays and bad love affairs, would actually need my help and that of every friend whom had ever found themselves a part of his orbit.

Read the rest of this entry »