Resolution...

I wanted to update everyone on what has happened since this disaster occurred and my insurance policy was terminated by ObamaCare. When I found out that my policy had been terminated, my wife and I immediately set out to get it resolved because I was in great need of the infusion medicine.  I need that medicine every week. I had already missed one infusion and I was most certainly going to miss a second one. My wife wrote a letter to our senators here in Utah detailing what had occurred and explaining that I had signed up with a new insurance plan through healtchcare.gov, only to have them turn around and terminate my policy. This prevented me from receiving my infusion medicine. It turns out this was certainly the best course of action we could have taken. Senator Hatch’s and Senator Lee’s offices became involved and contacted the department who would be capable of resolving my situation, which turned out to be CMS, the Centers for  Medicare & Medicaid services. CMS was receiving calls every day from the senator’s offices and being told to get my problem fixed immediately. After several days of the senator’s offices bothering them, I was able to get back my insurance that I had signed up for. I was then able to get a shipment of my infusion medicine sent to me.

As it stands now I was able to get this matter resolved and receive the treatment I need to stay alive and healthy, all thanks to two senator’s offices and their assistance and efforts. The biggest fear now is just for the future. My insurance policy was terminated out of nowhere by ObamaCare and we still have yet to receive an explanation as to why it happened.

I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who showed caring and concern for my family and for my health and well being. The outpouring of support, concern and love from so many people was truly a blessing. The kindness of strangers and friends alike was incredibly touching, and so very much appreciated.


Brick Williams

Don't Let Obamacare Kill Brick

This is Brick Williams. Husband, father, guitar player/teacher.

Brick was born with a severe immune deficiency disease, in which his lymphatic system does not work properly, in other words, his body doesn’t produce antibodies. His body doesn’t have the ability to fight against infection, or viruses, on it’s own. His disease is similar to HIV, but it’s his red blood cells, not the white, that are affected, and it’s a genetic disease, not one that can be transferred from one person to another.

In Brick’s own words:

“It took them 19 years to figure out what was wrong with me. I spent my whole childhood sicker than all hell. I lost track how many times I went to the doctor, the ER, the instacare, the hospital…far too many. I had pneumonia and bronchitis more times than are even fathomable, not to mention dozens of other strange illnesses because of my bodies inability to fight off infection. I still deal with this stuff. Well, when they finally figured out what was wrong with me at nearly 20 years old my life changed dramatically, and for the better.

The treatment for my disease is to receive an infusion each week. An infusion of gamma globulin. I get other peoples antibodies injected into my system. It takes a few hours to do each week, but it is necessary for me to stay alive. Pretty simple process: just pop a few needles into your body, draw the medicine into a very large syringe, sterilize everything and turn a pump on. Few hours later and it is over. You feel like hell for about 24 hours or so, especially when the infusions are done intravenously, but then you are back to life. This allows me to be a somewhat healthy person who can function pretty much like a normal human being.

The infusions are made from blood plasma, so if you ever donate plasma, I owe you my life and thank God that there are people out there willing to do such things for people like me. As you can imagine, the infusions cost about as much as a NASA space shuttle. Maybe Oprah could afford them, but I can’t. My yearly salary teaching guitar lessons full-time wouldn’t cover the cost of one year worth of infusions. Insurance is a must or my life is in serious jeopardy.

For example, I didn’t have insurance about 8-9 years ago for a while and so I wasn’t receiving infusions. I was on my deathbed within a year. They were literally preparing my wife to be a widow. I was able to get infusions again (without insurance) and it saved my life. I racked up a $25,000 hospital bill in just a few weeks, but I’m still here. Since that time I’ve been paying for my own insurance through the state of Utah. Paying an ungodly amount to have insurance for the uninsurable. Starting on Oct. 1st (the first day you could start trying to sign up for obamacare) my wife and I started the process of trying to get me insurance. We had to do this because the insurance I’ve had for the last 8-9 years doesn’t exist anymore as of Jan. 1st.

I cannot adequately describe the funny farm that the obamacare joke is. There simply are no words, and I ran out of swear words long ago. We spent about 40 hours trying to do things through the website, you know, healthcare.gov.loadofcrap/thiswon’twork/youaredumbforeventrying.goaway. Yeah, that website. Since a million hours on the website didn’t result in a damn thing I had to call them at least a dozen times from October-December. Each call lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours. I had to call my infectious disease doctor a dozen times, my pharmaceutical provider a couple dozen times, etc. etc…I even called God a few times. To make a long story short, 1 out of 50 people you talk to will actually give a damn about you. All 50 of them will tell you a different story, and if you happen to be lucky enough to get on the phone with the “1″ it won’t matter. Something will go wrong with the website, with the phase of the moon, with a server crashing somewhere, with a whale farting in the ocean. Something will go wrong, and any progress you made trying to get your application completed so that you can sign up for insurance will be undone. Well, after much trial, after many swear words and with the help of “1″ I finally got my application completed by some miracle. So I signed up for a plan right before the deadline. An awesome plan that was going to save me a large amount of money each month and relieve some of the financial burden that my disease has had on my family. After all, obamacare is supposed to help people like me. We paid the premium, got pre-authorization from my infectious disease doctor and contacted my pharmaceutical provider that sends me the infusion medicine.

When the pharmacy contacted my insurance company the insurance company said they had got a letter from obamacare today, and that letter cancelled my policy…yep, you read it here folks, obamacare cancelled my policy. Of course no one on the face of the planet knows why it is gone, and Lisa and I only spent 4 and half hours on the phone today trying to figure it out. Meanwhile, I’ve missed one infusion already and it looks like I won’t be getting one this week either. All that means is the potential for me to get horribly sick goes up by the day. I am so frustrated by obamacare, by our government, by insurance companies, by my infectious disease, by press 1 to speak to so-and-so.”

Please, whatever you can do, help Brick. If he doesn’t get his treatments he will die, that is the reality. We can help.

Don’t let Obamacare kill Brick.