{"id":4730,"date":"2012-06-29T15:41:42","date_gmt":"2012-06-29T23:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/?p=4730"},"modified":"2021-09-02T07:45:07","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T15:45:07","slug":"californias-gamble-on-obamacare-pays-off-but-states-uninsured-still-suffer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/4730\/californias-gamble-on-obamacare-pays-off-but-states-uninsured-still-suffer\/","title":{"rendered":"California\u2019s Gamble on Obamacare Pays Off, But State’s Uninsured Still Suffer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Uninsured healthcare patient Allen Widner, 27, checked into several Alameda County\u00a0 hospitals before receiving the emergency treatment he needed. Photo courtesy Jodi Hernstrom.<\/p><\/div>\n

By Joe Fitzgerald<\/a> and Sara Bloomberg<\/a><\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

June 29, 2012<\/p>\n

Allen Widner began to experience intense stomach pains in early May.<\/p>\n

His grandmother called 911 and the 27-year-old was rushed to Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland. He was given Vicodin and discharged \u2014 but the pain never stopped.<\/p>\n

He returned the next day, was diagnosed with acid reflux and sent home with antacids.<\/p>\n

“I felt like I was dying,\u201d Widner said, but the hospital\u2019s staff refused to admit him for the night.<\/p>\n

The next day, Widner\u2019s mother drove up from Salinas to visit her son and his partner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t want to tell me because they didn\u2019t want to ruin my Mother\u2019s Day,\u201d said his mother, Jodi Hernstrom.<\/p>\n

But she could tell that something was wrong.<\/p>\n

Hernstrom drove the family back to Alta Bates\u2019 emergency room for what would be Widner\u2019s third visit for the same abdominal pains.<\/p>\n

They waited more than an hour for care as Widner screamed in pain, clutching at his gut.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was infuriated. I was so concerned.\u201d Hernstrom said. \u201cEven though he\u2019s 27 he\u2019s still my kid, in pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of thousands<\/strong><\/p>\n

Widner, of Oakland, now has more than $17,000 in hospital bills. He is one of the nearly 200,000 uninsured residents in Alameda County.<\/p>\n

Like many young men, who tend to not seek primary care, he was unaware of his options, including programs like HealthPAC<\/a>, a program established in 2011 that uses federal funding to provide some 72,000 uninsured residents with health care in the county.<\/p>\n

The program is one of many in California that sought to expand health care coverage to the uninsured under a broader blueprint called \u201cBridge to Reform.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program, approved in November 2010, brought $10 million in federal funding to California for expanding health care coverage and transitioning to the stipulations of Obamacare by 2014 \u2013 a gamble, since at the time its future was cloudy at best.<\/p>\n

Under the newly upheld Affordable Care Act, federal funds wil roll into state coffers nationally by 2013 to pay 100 percent of MediCaid reimbursements \u2013 known as MediCal in California \u2013 to primary care physicians.<\/p>\n

Millions of previously uninsured people across the state have already enrolled in health care through \u201cBridge to Reform,\u201d including a vulnerable chunk of the population that may be unexpected: the middle class.<\/p>\n

Those living above the federal poverty line but who don\u2019t earn enough to afford costly insurance are those most likely to fall through the crachs of health care, said Kathleen Clonan, medical director of Alameda County\u2019s HealthPAC program.<\/p>\n

Widner is among them. The Oakland resident was laid off from his video game development job in March. Previously insured through work, Widner was one of those unlucky thousands who had not yet enrolled in a new health plan. And it nearly cost him his life.<\/p>\n

Nothing to be done<\/strong><\/p>\n

Widner and his family were told there was nothing that could be done for him at Alta Bates<\/a> and recommended that he go see a specialist at Oakland\u2019s Highland General Hospital, known nationally as a place so wildly strewn with those in need of emergency care that it\u2019s often compared to practicing medicine in a war-torn country.<\/p>\n

Widner\u2019s mother argued with staff at Alta Bates, but said her concerns went unheard. When she wheeled Widner out in a hospital wheelchair, security was called \u2014 nurses told the guard that they may be attempting to steal the wheelchair. The family left to try their hand at Highland.
\nHighland lived up to reputation.<\/p>\n

Alta Bates sees about 40,000 emergency room visits every year. Last year, Highland saw more than double that amount, while only having about a third more on-staff nurses, according to the American Hospital Association.<\/p>\n

Officials at Highland told Widner he\u2019s had to wait eight hours to see a specialist.<\/p>\n

Emergency rooms are overburdened with people without access to primary care, said Sherri Willis, the public information officer for the Alameda County Public Health Department. In some cases, patients may wait up to six weeks to see a specialist.<\/p>\n

\u201c[By law] you cannot be turned away for any reason\u201d Willis said, but the level of care provided is not determined by law.<\/p>\n

Widner had \u201cunknown abdominal pain,\u201d according to his discharge papers from Alta Bates.
\nLeft improperly treated, the source of that pain almost proved deadly.<\/p>\n


\nThe road to better healthcare<\/strong><\/p>\n

While other mothers around California sat down for dinner with their children, Jodi Hernstrom just wanted to see her son live.<\/p>\n

Hernstrom fled from Highland with her son and set out for Natividad Medical Center<\/a> in Salinas \u2014 a nearly two-hour drive south \u2014 where she was certain her son would get care.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy ex-husband died two years ago. I\u2019ve had six people die in my family in the past two years. That\u2019s how I knew Natividad would take care of him, from the care they gave Allen\u2019s brother,\u201d Hernstrom said.
\nHernstrom could feel her son kicking against the back of her seat, screaming in agony the whole way to Salinas as she slammed her foot against the gas pedal.<\/p>\n

While his mother drove, Widner\u2019s partner Becca Hoekstra tried to come to grips with what was happening.
\n\u201cI kept calculating how much time he had left before he started to die, while trying to rationalize that it could never possibly happen,\u201d Hoekstra said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe worst part was that he was barely conscious by this point. He was in so much pain he couldn\u2019t think; could hardly see; could barely talk,\u201d she said. \u201cHe would have died without either of us being able to say goodbye. He wouldn\u2019t even know how much I loved him and would miss him.\u201d<\/p>\n

It took only two visits to Natividad for Widner to see a specialist. During his first visit, he was given a muscle relaxant to ease the pain. When the pain returned hours later, they ran tests and began treating him for acid reflux \u2014 a very common and easily treated condition.<\/p>\n

But untreated, the acid had escaped his stomach and tore more than a hundred ulcers up and down his esophagus. The doctors told the frightened family that had he continued \u201cwaiting it out,\u201d he may have died.<\/p>\n

Specialists in short supply<\/strong><\/p>\n

Programs to help the uninsured are available in Alameda County, including HealthPAC, but access to a specialist is still not guaranteed, Kathleen Clonan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBridge to Reform\u201d is helping, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cHighland hospital is using some of the federal money with health care reform to increase the amount of Gastro-Intestinal specialists\u201d available, she said, but there are still some services that aren\u2019t covered by HealthPAC, such as podiatry, dentistry and optics.<\/p>\n

Around three-quarters of Salinas residents who are currently uninsured are expected to become eligible for either Medical or private insurance exchanges under Obamacare, said Harry Weis, Natividad\u2019s chief executive officer.<\/p>\n

“It’s a huge positive step forward,” Weis said. \u201cWe shouldn’t underestimate that this is the most important legislation since 1965,\u201d when Medicare was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. \u201cOur current model is not sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his experience, Widner isn\u2019t as hopeful about the future of health care.<\/p>\n

“Any change is at least a change,” Widner said, but it\u2019s a still tiered system that offers different levels of care for those depending on who can pay for it.<\/p>\n

For those like Widner, who have already fallen through the cracks, help from new insurance programs and new specialists may be too little, too late.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey only seek health care if something is broken or dripping. Young women, in their late teens, come into care around reproductive stuff,\u201d Clonan said. \u201cYoung men are the hardest population to reach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outreach and education will remain an important part of improving health care in this country, as millions of previously uninsured people gain increased access to free and reduced-cost health services.<\/p>\n

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has promised to repeal Obamacare if elected in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even before the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling on Thursday to uphold the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, California has been expanding health care coverage to the uninsured under a program called \u201cBridge to Reform.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8844,"featured_media":4731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108,1319,222,17],"tags":[98,1459,1518,183,1384,1383,990],"class_list":["post-4730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthcare","category-law","category-news","category-politics","tag-barack-obama","tag-bnr","tag-bridge-to-reform","tag-california","tag-health-insurance","tag-obamacare","tag-single-payer"],"yoast_head":"\nCalifornia\u2019s Gamble on Obamacare Pays Off, But State's Uninsured Still Suffer - Fog City Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/4730\/californias-gamble-on-obamacare-pays-off-but-states-uninsured-still-suffer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"California\u2019s Gamble on Obamacare Pays Off, But State's Uninsured Still Suffer - 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