It goes without saying that healthcare coverage in the United States of America is extremely expensive, so much so that 47 million Americans are not covered at this time. However, for people with chronic illnesses even with coverage, they may not have access to all the services afforded other Americans with complete coverage. Times are hard and paying for insurance coverage or even having proper coverage is even harder. Victims of chronic illnesses are under a lot stress stemming from their maladies and this pressure is also transferred onto an already strained health care system.
People with chronic illnesses use the services more for doctor’s visits, medications, treatments and diagnostic testing. However, not every illness is picked up by diagnostic testing at this time. This happens quite frequently in the case of chronic pain. Certain types of chronic pain will be seen on x-rays, blood testing or resonance imaging tools such as the MRI, and then there are others like fibromyalgia that do not leave telltale signs. The diagnosis for fibromyalgia is defined by widespread pain and 12 out of 18 trigger points (tender points) must be notated. Fibromyalgia is a disease of the central nervous system where the body detects pain yet there are no physical indicators as to why this pain occurs.
According to the American Pain Foundation, fibromyalgia is one of the leading chronic pain disorders facing Americans today. They report that it affects 2-5% of Americans and that translates to 6,000, 0000 people. The onset of this disorder is between 20 and 55. Different studies have shown that sufferers of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome not only use health care services more often than other pain sufferers they are also mostly unemployed due to their debilitating illnesses.
Furthermore, women are 9 times more likely to contract the disease than men are. Women are already in a precarious position when it comes to health insurance. Generally speaking they have lower incomes, and less insurance. Many women are not even insured at all.
People with fibromyalgia who have not been diagnosed are in a very precarious position. They know they have pain, and the go from doctor to doctor trying to get a diagnosis so that they can qualify for medical benefits. Since this illness is not readily detected on standard tests many doctors still scoff off the illness by arguing with the victims that they do not have pain, or it is a psychological disorder the proverbial, “it is all in your head,” or they are hypochondriacs. This too will lead to more stress and illness. The figures of 6 million individuals may be understated at this time due to the reluctance of many doctors to recognize this type of chronic pain (48% of doctors surveyed according to the National Fibromyalgia Association findings in 2007).
The American Pain Foundation is sponsoring a petition, supporting the American Health Association’s efforts to combat restrictive health insurance practices for people who suffer from fibromyalgia and to make sure that they have access to all the medical benefits that they require. This petition is being sent out to state insurance commissioners, attorney generals and other federal officials such as the secretary of health. The aim is to get decent health insurance coverage for fibromyalgia patients and to standardize this coverage through developing a code of ethics for health insurance companies, which will provide regulations and guidelines for health insurance coverage and benefits, payment issues, and the surveillance of compliance by health insurers in this area.
Every American should have access to the FDA approved medication to relieve symptoms. They should have access to any treatment options including physical therapy, cognitive therapy and more. Beside access to these medications and treatments they should be affordable. Health insurance companies as well as large pharmaceuticals need to put profit aside and do the ethical thing. In a country as big and as wealthy (in comparison to other countries of the world) as the United States, there is no reason why fibromyalgia sufferers should be singled out in this way. Fibromyalgia is a real disease like any other. It is not a figment of a hysterical woman’s imagination.