Health Care Story - Gary Dozier

My name is Gary Dozier and I’m from Hampton falls, New Hampshire where I live with my wife of six years.

Joyce and I married in May of 2001, so we’re still newlyweds in a sense. Since age 13, Joyce has had petite mal epilepsy. What happens is that she loses a track of time – she goes unconscious for just a bleep of a second, but right before she hits the ground, she’ll wake up. Most of the time it’s manageable, but it can cause serious problems.
Now right before we got married, I decided to leave my job and return to college to finish my degree, which had been postponed for more than 35 years. Because I no longer had company insurance and was considering opening a small business, I took out health insurance for us for catastrophic illnesses.

It was good I did. Soon after, Joyce’s doctor called us into the office to discuss concerns over a recent health screen. We learned that she had Grade 1, Stage 1 uterine cancer. It was a low-grade, which was promising, but those cells needed to be addressed.

This was 2003 and our first serious round with our insurance. We were paying $10,500 to cover both of us, with a deductible of $3500 for each of us. After that, the cost was split between the insurance and us, 80/20.

Joyce’s hospital stay for her cancer surgery cost $14,400 plus the money for the surgeon, x-rays, visits, pharmacy medications, etc.

The costs were adding up financially, and also taking a toll on us personally. I had to quit school to take care of Joyce and the household while she recovered. We were only able to get approval for temporary home care assistance. Unfortunately, Joyce developed an infection in the incision and had to go back to the doctor.
What’s alarming is that we can’t change our insurance if we find something better because there is a pre-condition clause that means we can’t get another insurance company to cover the cancer for at least five years. And we’ve done some shopping.

We’ve had other run-in’s with medical problems that have kept health care at the top of our minds. With Joyce’s epilepsy, it costs $1243 retail just for a 90-day prescription to maintain it. Canada will sell it to us for $413. That’s still a lot but we’re so grateful it’s cheaper.

Even with the medication, Joyce has had seizures which have caused her great harm.
- In April 2005, she developed DVTs – Deep Vein blood clots – and it cost $15,500 for her hospital stay alone.

- In November 2006, she had a seizure while walking our dogs and broke her leg. Times like this one might call an ambulance, but we know we can’t afford the $715 price tag so she suffered in pain until our car got her to the hospital.

Health care is a top issue for us because we know we’re not the only family in this situation. The high cost of health care affects everyone. We need a President who will ensure quality, affordable health care for all Americans.