Sunday, August 9, 2020

A Cancer Survivor's Anxiety Soars After Losing Health Insurance

 Even though I knew I was eligible for COBRA and that it would come into effect soon, my anxiety soared and grew as the days progressed. I told anybody who would listen that a cancer survivor in the time of COVID cannot be without insurance for even a second.

PUBLISHED AUGUST 05, 2020
Felicia Mitchell is a poet and writer who makes her home in southwestern Virginia, where she teaches at Emory & Henry College. She was diagnosed with Stage 2b HER2-positive breast cancer in 2010. Website: www.feliciamitchell.net

Recently, I was without health insurance for a few weeks. I knew I was eligible for COBRA and that this would come into effect soon. Even if insurance is retroactively reinstated as soon as first payments for COBRA are processed, though, I still ended up in a panic. The "what-ifs" were plentiful. What if I fell into a coma? What if I ended up in the ER with bills that needed to be redone (paperwork hell) once COBRA went into effect? What if I was going to be the first person ever whose COBRA fell through for no reason?

My anxiety soared. It got higher as the days progressed. I started to lose sleep. I told anybody who would listen that a cancer survivor in the time of COVID cannot be without insurance for even a second. For me, the promise of insurance was not enough. I wanted the real deal. Impatient, I wished that the transition from regular insurance to COBRA could be as seamless as a lymphedema sleeve.

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