Bad Case of PIISD: Private Insurance Induced Stress Disorder [View all]
AA psychiatrist diagnoses victims of health insurance
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/02-5?print
In July 2009, Carol A. Paris, a psychiatrist and an advocate for a single-payer national health care system, found herself on a speakers panel with Donna Smith of Aurora, Colo.
Smith and her husband, Larry, had been featured in the 2007 Michael Moore movie "Sicko." After Larry Smith was diagnosed with chronic coronary disease and Donna Smith contracted uterine cancer, they couldn't keep up with the costs of health insurance. They were forced to sell their home in South Dakota and move into the basement of a daughter's home in Colorado. Moore took them to Cuba for treatment.
"I heard her talk," Paris said, "and I thought, 'That's an amazing story.' I see patients every day being pushed around by the health insurance industry and that story just pissed me off."
The more she thought about it, the more she realized that people dealing with health insurers exhibit some of the same symptoms as patients with post-traumatic stress disorder.