Texas Public-Ed Retirees Over 65 Also Suffering Due to Health Care Nightmare - PART II

NOTE:  This is the second in a multi-part series about the 2017 Texas Legislature and the devastating effects of their decision to create a healthcare nightmare for public-ed retirees across the state.  Part I focused on a retired teacher under the age of 65.  The follow-up to her story will likely be Part III; however, I am waiting for her situation to be resolved before her medication runs out in January.  And there are plenty more stories to tell.

            I read a November post by a woman named Margaret on the Retired Texas Educators with TRS/Retirement Concerns Facebook page.  (Just the fact that there is such a page speaks volumes about what the Texas Legislature has done to us.)  Here is Margaret's post:

              The post moved me to tears.  How in the world could a retired public-ed employee, promised throughout her career that she would have affordable health care in her retirement, be denied a walker she NEEDED due to multiple broken bones?  Who will answer for the two falls she took as a result of being denied this walker, the first causing her to break her right foot and damage the bones in the foot and ankle of the other leg severely damaged in the original fall, the second causing injury to one shoulder, both feet, one wrist, and her back?  I cannot even imagine the pain she must have endured then and must still be enduring daily. 

            “If I were the only one who has suffered needlessly because of delays and denials, I could accept it, but there are so many like me….Please pray for all retired teachers who are dealing with this and are too old and too whipped to fight this.  Why should I have to fight so hard to get equipment that would have prevented fractures and back and shoulder injuries?” 

            Inexcusable.  Heartbreaking. Shameful.  And true.  Why, indeed? 

            I reached out to Margaret, asking permission to share her story.  She immediately said yes, hoping that by sharing her story—and the stories of so many others—our legislators would finally listen and give us the health care they have so generously given THEIR retired counterparts, most of whom spent far less time in the Texas Legislature than we spent in classrooms, driving school buses, serving meals to students, cleaning school facilities….

            I asked Margaret how this all started.  She explained that after her original fall caused by stepping in an armadillo hole, she went to see an orthopedic surgeon.  Humana would not approve the boot the surgeon said she needed, despite three broken bones in her ankle.  Instead, she was told, she would need the nursing home--where she was sent after the fall--to provide her with a boot.  At the nursing home, Margaret was told they do not normally do this.  They ordered one, but it did not fit her properly. Later, she had surgery to set the broken bones.  The surgeon wanted her to spend the night; again Humana denied it.  She had to be taken back to the nursing home by ambulance, and she said she screamed in agony throughout the next day.  “I needed hospital care,” Margaret told me.

            Later, when she was released to go home, Margaret had a sprained wrist and shoulder and could not use a standard walker.  The orthopedic surgeon made it clear she needed a platform walker.  Humana denied it, their third denial for something Margaret’s surgeon insisted she needed.

            You know from Margaret’s post above what happened next.  Only after suffering two more devastating falls did Humana approve her platform walker.
            “No one should suffer like I did,” Margaret told me.

            And in one of her follow-up posts, she wrote:  “All the medical professionals told me to switch to Medicare and a supplement because of Humana’s horrible coverage.  I am switching.”

            This, Margaret, is your reward for dedicating your life to Texas students.

 Chris Ardis retired in May of 2013 following a 29-year teaching career. She now helps companies with business communications and social media and works as a sales coordinator for Tony Roma's and Macaroni Grill. Chris can be reached at cardis1022@aol.com. (Photo by Linda Blackwell, McAllen)