Geographic discrimination?

Thu, 16 Dec 1999 17:00:00 +0000

Rose Grigsby admits she didn't go to her Arizona health club much. But the short, plump 78-year-old didn't exactly waste her money by not going. Her tab was picked up by the federal government -- as part of her Medicare HMO package.

This fall, when Grigsby moved back to her native Minnesota, she found that the local Medicare HMOs not only wouldn't pay for the gym; they wouldn't cover one of her high-blood-pressure medications, either. While her Minnesota plan does cover the two inhalers she needs to battle asthma, Grigsby now pays $270 a month for coverage more limited than her $50 plan in Arizona.

"It burns the heck out of me that I can't get decent coverage here, but I get great coverage if I go to Arizona," says the retired business owner.

Grigsby pays hundreds more out of her fixed income because the alternative was worse: dying among strangers. "I wanted to be near my family," she says. "I'd seen people down there in Arizona, living in nursing homes, all alone. That wasn't going to be me. So I said to heck with it -- I'm coming back here, and if I go broke, I go broke."

Luckily, she says, she is still doing OK financially. "[But] if I was somebody in real need, I wouldn't dare come back here, even if it meant not living close to my family," she says.

Hand holding for moms

Tue, 07 Dec 1999 17:00:00 +0000

My wife, Sarah, crumpled the newspaper in exasperation. I perked up; this
usually portends an interesting breakfast.

The object of her scorn was a column on the latest dust-up about drugs
during childbirth. Once again, the debate was framed as a battle of
ridiculous extremes: The no-drug mothers -- smug masochists who use birth as
the ultimate extreme sport -- face off against narcotized moms who are weak,
shallow stoners. "You either suffer or take massive loads of drugs," she
said sarcastically. "No one is talking about what mothers really need --
which is support, so you may not have to do either."

Sarah is no ideologue. Two years ago, before our son Ian was born, she
filled out a form in Lamaze class that asked her to rank the likelihood
that she would need drugs during childbirth. She had to pick a level on a scale from 1 (roughing it) to 10 (Janis Joplin). She chose a 7. This was higher than I'd expected, but even a first-time father knows not to debate such things. When the time came, though, she needed no drugs at all -- thanks to the help of a doula, a professional labor coach.

Salon.com > David Brauer

Geographic discrimination?

Hand holding for moms