Church to patient: no treatment for you
This is very bad too. A woman bleeding and in pain from a dislodged IUD is turned away by her doctor because of the bishops.
Melanie Jones arrived for her doctor’s appointment bleeding and in pain. Jones, 28, who lives in the Chicago area, had slipped in her bathroom, and suspected the fall had dislodged her copper intrauterine device (IUD).
Her doctor confirmed the IUD was dislodged and had to be removed. But the doctor said she would be unable to remove the IUD, citing Catholic restrictions followed by Mercy Hospital and Medical Center and providers within its system.
Wait, what, had Jones gone to a church to get medical treatment?
No, of course she hadn’t. She’d gone to her doctor.
The doctor left Jones to confer with colleagues, before returning to confirm that her “hands [were] tied,” according to two complaints filed by the ACLU of Illinois. Not only could she not help her, the doctor said, but no one in Jones’ health insurance network could remove the IUD, because all of them followed similar restrictions. Mercy, like many Catholic providers, follows directives issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that restrict access to an array of services, including abortion care, tubal ligations, and contraception.
“Directive” from bishops saying what medical care people can’t have. From bishops. Religious personnel should have no say whatsoever in what medical care people can’t have.
“She told Ms. Jones that that process [of switching networks] would take her a month, and that she should feel fortunate because sometimes switching networks takes up to six months or even a year,” the ACLU of Illinois wrote in a pair of complaints filed in late June.
Jones hadn’t even realized her health-care network was Catholic.
Let alone that it would refuse to treat a medical problem connected to her contraception.
Jones left her doctor’s office, still in pain and bleeding. Her options were limited. She couldn’t afford a $1,000 trip to the emergency room, and an urgent care facility was out of the question since her Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois insurance policy would only cover treatment within her network—and she had just been told that her entire network followed Catholic restrictions.
Her insurance was good only within her network, and she couldn’t get the needed treatment within that network. This is not right.
Jones, on the advice of a friend, contacted the ACLU of Illinois. Attorneys there advised Jones to call her insurance company and demand they expedite her network change. After five hours of phone calls, Jones was able to see a doctor who removed her IUD, five days after her initial appointment and almost two weeks after she fell in the bathroom.
Before the IUD was removed, Jones suffered from cramps she compared to those she felt after the IUD was first placed, severe enough that she medicated herself to cope with the pain.
All because the god damn bishops say No. God damn religious fanatic bishops who won’t ever be writhing in pain because a dislodged IUD is poking them in the innards say NO to women in that situation. It makes me want to smash a few altars.
A few years ago, I was at a conference where they put us up at Creighton University in Omaha. One morning at breakfast, I saw a whole group of priests and seminary students having breakfast. I had to struggle to resist the urge to go over and say nasty things to them, and ask them what sort of people could not only support a church that does such awful things, but actually try to spread the awfulness further. Right now, I wish I hadn’t managed to hold myself in check. That might have been worth getting arrested for.
They don’t even try to hide how vindictive and punitive this policy is! She wasn’t seeking a procedure to implant or use contraception (not that that should be their business either). She was experiencing a medical crisis. Who the hell are they to say, “Serves you right, harlot”?
“Mercy Hospital and Medical Center”. Could not somebody take steps to force them to at least change their name?
The Hippocratic Oath and the Bible are mutually exclusive foundations of medical practice. It’s infuriating that money allows the latter to take precedence over the former.
I once had an IUD dislodge. I had to wait nearly an hour to have it removed because the out-of-hours surgery I went to had decided that I needed to see a female doctor (they didn’t bother to ask me). In that time I became increasingly dizzy and sick. If I had had to wait five days I think I would have tried to remove it myself instead.
It’s also shocking to me as a UK reader that a trip to hospital would have cost $1000.
As a US reader, it’s shocking to me, too. I can’t imagine it that cheap. A short trip to my doctor for a routine checkup is usually over $200, and that’s if they don’t really do anything. I suspect it might have been even more expensive than $1000.
iknklast: Since she does have BCBS, it’s possible that the insurance would’ve kicked in after $1000, even for out-of-network care; the total bill, as you indicate, would likely have been much more.
Huh? Suppose a woman has an IUD, is doing well with it, but decides she wants it removed – either because she wants to have a child in the near future or because she was persuaded by the Catholic Church’s position that the IUD was evil and sinful. Would the policy still prohibit the hospital from doing the removal? Or do they only refuse such treatment to women who are suffering and being endangered?
There’s so many layers of wrong.
One thing that horrifies me is that the insurance company isn’t required to disclose their non-medicine-based decision bias up front. I wouldn’t have known that was a Catholic-affiliated insurance plan.
Something isn’t right here….she wanted it “out”. I also find it hard to believe that her entire “network” was Catholic. I have a feeling part of the story is accurate and part of it isn’t.
Why do you find it hard to believe? Many networks are Catholic.