“I signed up for one of Bunny Morgan-Brown's Juno Jars. Back in May of 2022. I need to specify that first, I'm a disabled person on SSI, so, I'm already chronically poor. Second, my Mom who is ALSO disabled lives with me, and third, I do have a fiancee who is chronically ill, with type 1 diabetes, extreme ADHD that for many years was unmedicated, and autism. Oh, he's also a wizard. He has a rule about not doing his own luck magic. But I mean, we can outsource, right?
So, here's what happened, it's a WHOLE lot of weird coinkydinks, so bare with me. In 2021 my partner got sick. It turned out to be his heart, after a long series of issues. He had a blockage. I'll get into that in a bit. We tried getting him on Medicaid, they said no. (His Mom helping to support him was a big no-no. This guy takes HUGE doses of insulin along with a ton of other stuff.) He has hard to manage ADHD, so he had to go off of his meds... It was not.a.good.time. So, one day he answers what he thinks is a telemarketing phone call. He figures it's a scam.
It's not, it's for some type of glucose monitor. The woman on the line informs him that his insurance might cover it... and he tells her that he has none. She goes "Wait, hold on, let me connect you with an agent at the Healthcare Marketplace and we'll see if we can get you free coverage."
So, he's kind of WTFing here. Majorly. He talks to an agent, they inform him that they can get him coverage. I pretty much start sobbing out relief, because at this point we've known he has a heart blockage but not how to pay for the 10k the doctor he saw wanted out of pocket.
It turned out, that was a blessing in disguise. Let me explain. So, doctor he saw isn't in his network, so we decide to go to Houston. We live in an area where the hospitals are kind of notorious for getting people dead post-covid. I wish I was kidding but...
So the first doctor I got him into, we get there, he's cool as fuck, and he calls the previous cardiologist. He gives us his cell phone number, first. Then he gets ENRAGED because the previous cardiologist not only can't pronounce my partners name right, but the guy seems to have NO FREAKING CLUE who he is. Like, at all. It turns out, the guy I got him in with was NOT the right type of cardiologist...but he had a list of people who he felt like would be a good fit, and 2 tests Nate needed run so that he could make sure he wouldn't die during an angiogram. (The other doctor didn't mention this shit, and, ngl, I was mad as HELL because they were simple AF tests. Just 2 ultrasounds. WTAF.)
So he refers him to his colleague. Who is nice as hell and schedules the angiogram. Unfortunately, the first visit our ride caught covid, and we had to reschedule. This was August 9th.
The soonest they could get him back in was September 20th. Okay, we can do that. So I set up for us to get on the Amtrak over to Houston, then take a lyft to the hotel. The hotel was within walking distance of the Hospital. So we arrived a few days early for pre-testing, etc.
We planned to just bring our luggage over on a walk...and when I tell you Nate could not walk to the hospital, which was like half a mile from the hotel, I mean he could not walk. We Ubered over. So, from there, I realized he was not making it up to the floor for his surgery. I grabbed a wheelchair, shoved him in it, and then had him hold the luggage while I pushed him. He looked like death. I was terrified he was actually having the heart attack.
It turned out he had a 90% blockage. I am positive that if we hadn't been there that day, he would have died. Probably in one of the local, shitty hospitals. He got 2 stents put in.
Now, that's not the end of the 'Holy crap, your luck turned the fuck around."
The hospital bill was 80k.
There was no way in fuck we could afford that.
Like...none. We called to see about setting up payments. I was distraught. It was already going to take him a year to recover, if not longer, because of how close he was to a heart attack. Like, this was huge. Yeah, insurance is supposed to help, but, it didn't cover a lot of what they did apparently...
So in the weeks after, we called the hospital's insurance office. They kept telling us we couldn't make payments yet. Then a few months later... I don't remember exactly when...
We get a bill. And... it's not a bill?? EVERYTHING HAS BEEN COVERED EXCEPT $20 OF HIS TREATMENT. They somehow worked things out with the insurance.
Then, from there, they moved him to a BETTER insurance plan.
I fully accredit Bunny with that. I haven't had a chance to write all of this out until now, but, the fact is, I don't think that without your workings, we would have been okay financially. I might just be untrusting but I didn't expect the insurance to agree to cover THAT much.
I just want to say thank you, Bunny. I appreciate your work so much. I apologize for it taking me so long to write this out, I hope that it helps you now, to know that your magic made it possible for the person I love to survive in a unfriendly as fuck climate to disabled people.”