Consumer Confidential: A hard-luck healthcare story — and appeal for cash — that shouldn't rock your world
by David Lazarus, Los Angeles Times
Feb 19, 2019
4 minutes
As hard-luck stories go, this one was a doozy.
It was a letter from a woman identifying herself as Janetta Hames, "a wife, mom and grandma from Texas." She says she volunteers at her church and at her youngest daughter's school. Her son is in the Coast Guard. Her older daughter is a middle-school choir director.
"I have several diseases," Hames says. These are: Systemic lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, interstitial lung disease and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which, according to the Mayo Clinic, involves "overly flexible joints and stretchy, fragile skin."
"My treatments for these diseases cost over $50,000 a month," Hames says in her letter, "and even after insurance pays
You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.
Start your free 30 days