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Pat W. wrote:

>Our Company forced everyone into HMO....Our HMO has taken it upon
>themselves not only to refuse coverage with Johns Hopkins....I want
>to add that the hospital our son is approved to go to is a
>resident/physician training hospital.  My mother had surgery there
>and is paying the consequences for the rest of her life.

Has there been HMO bashing on this list that I am not aware of?.  I think
Pat's concern is legitimate if you all knew the history of this child's
diagnosis and what Pat and Mark have been through.  I think it would
behoove us all to have an little compassion here.  I am going to collect
some of the cancer experiences with HMO's and share them with the list; it
will absolutely shock you! I, for one, feel Pat has a legitimate reason to
be afraid of what this HMO is doing to her son.

And to Pat, the only encouragement I can give you about teaching hospitals,
is that Ron has had all his cancer treatments at those in Boston which are
connected with Harvard and he has had wonderful care. Sometime being with a
teaching hospital provides you with the most up-to-date methods and
information. It also enabled him to get an experimental drug which would
not be made available to him, had not the hospital been "connected" as a
research facility.

BTW, one of the other members in our Celiac group is also up against a possible
change of health insurance and they are also fearing what it will do to
Lindsey's care.

Rosalie Jalbert -Literally Living in the State of Hope (Rhode Island)
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