Mark Resnick's Continuing Medical Care
Donation protected
I have been receiving medical care for Metastatic Colon Cancer for
the last three years. Unfortunately, I now find myself in a position where I need to ask others for financial assistance. I am simply too sick to generate the income I need to be financially self sustaining.
I personally know from a lifetime of my own medical expenses how deleterious any serious illness can affect one's finances. I have been fighting to stay alive most of my adult life. I now find myself in a position that forces me to ask others to help me so I can continue to fight my Cancer and stay alive.
My entire life savings were depleted because of the cost of my Health Insurance and additional medical expenses for the previous three and a half decades. If this had not been the case, I would most certainly be able to pay my current and future bills. I had an accident when I was 29 years old and spent the better part of a year recovering at The Hospital For Special Surgery in NYC.
Getting older and depleting ones life savings on medical care is depressing, I also realize, had I not received the extraordinary care I did when I was younger, I would not have survived until now. I have read many of the other requests on this website and I know that I am not alone in my financial plight. Because of my preexisting condition the cost of my health insurance was exorbitant for most of my adult life.
My Premium (Motivation / Gifts) Publishing Business FRW Inc., which marketed among other things, subscription renewal premiums to companies like Newsweek, imploded with the publishing industry and was a casualty of the larger financial meltdown. Ultimately, due to lack of sales, I was forced to close the business.
I moved to FL full time in late 2011 after seven months of Radiation and Chemotherapy in NYC through my HMO. I no longer had my former health insurance policy that would have allowed me to use the MD's and hospitals that had helped me survive over the previous three and a half decades.
I moved to an HMO in 2009 because my monthly health insurance premiums were about to jump to $4,800 per month from $4,500 per month. By then, I had almost completely exhausted my financial reserves so I had no other options. Since I was about to turn 65 in January 2012, after moving full time to FL., I waited an additional month for continuing health care. I did this because I was eligible for Medicare in January 2012. What I did not know was that to receive the care I required to stay alive, I would also need to pay for two expensive Supplemental Medicare Health insurance policies. Cancer treatments are not cheap and Medicare doesn't cover everything including many drugs, procedures and incidentals.
To earn money, I started a website called fascinatingeffects.com with Drew Denning. This site was designed to sell items that both of us had inherited or had made by hand ourselves. The hope was that this site would allow us to generate the desperately needed income to remain financially solvent. To date, that has not been the case. The website is still active but it is unfortunately not yet financailly self sustaining.
FYI - I have been receiving Chemotherapy at the Cleveland Clinic in Weston FL. since January 2012. The Chemotherapy is very hard on my system and it's nearly impossible to do anything between treatments.
The medical care I receive at the Cleveland Clinic is excellent and I have a wonderful Oncologist. I now find myself in the financial position, where If I cannot afford the expensive supplemental health insurance policies, (and the cost of the various drug co-pays), I shortly won't be able to continue to receive the level of health care that has sustained my life for the last two years. This is a horrible situation and I quite often feel helpless.
I have had some sales on the fascinatingeffects.com website and I now receive my social security retirement benefits, but my income doesn't even begin to cover the cost of the various Health Insurance Policies, Co-Pays, Health Related incidentals like Dental Care, let alone my Mortgage, Auto Insurance, Car Repairs, Telephone bills, Home Insurance for my Condominium, Real Estate Taxes, Food, etc.
Unfortunately the apartment which I share with Drew Denning is deeply underwater so I cannot sell it. This in no small part is due to the fact that the housing bubble was extremely severe in FL.
Not knowing what to do, and afraid I would not be able to continue to pay my ongoing bills, I have contacted dozens of Cancer Organizations. I qualified for their help, but due to a lack of donations from their supporters they simply could not help me. Our sluggish economy has everything to do with this ongoing financial dilemma.
Asking anybody to help me with my financial problems is something I never thought I would have to do. The whole process of asking for help from anybody, is mortifying and humbling. I desperately need to keep my apartment, and I need to continue to receive the quality medical care at The Cleveland Clinic that will let me survive my battle with Cancer. To accomplish my goals, I find that I have no other options but to reach out to my friends, family, and others for their help and support at this time in my life. As the saying goes, where there is life, there is hope.
Given my enormous medical expenses, I no longer have any discretionary income. I try to live very modestly but my fixed costs keep mounting. Thankfully, some friends and family members including Drew Dennings, have helped with loans and some monetary gifts. These loans and gifts have allowed me to survive this long. I now need to generate more income quickly or I will not be able to pay for my ongoing care or remain in my apartment. It's a choice I would rather not be forced to make.
I am very embarrassed about asking anybody for monetary help and even writing this plea makes me feel worthless. I would much rather earn the money myself, but because of my ongoing illness and the severe side effects from my treatments, my ability to work has been severely compromised. Due to decades of extraordinarily expensive medical care, I now find that I have few alternatives to stay afloat financially other than to turn to a fund raising site like this. Perhaps, had there been an affordable health care act when I was younger, that did not penalize prior preexisting medical conditions, I would not find myself in this current financial predicament.
Contracting an expensive illness after spending the previous three and a half decades dealing with severe and expensive Orthopedic problems isn't easy. I do know that the extraordinary care I received when I was younger at The Hospital For Special Surgery from Dr. Phillip Wilson Jr. and many of the other amazing MD's and staff members, allowed me to survive until now. I take each day as it comes and I realize how fortunate I am to still be alive. Please know that I do try to work when I am well enough to do so. My hope is that one day soon I'll regain enough energy to work full time on the fascinating effects website.
Posting my story on the gofundme.com website hopefully will allow me to reach a larger universe of potential donors. I hope this larger pool of former friends, co workers, and friends of friends, can help contribute something to allow me to continue to receive my health care and the medications I need to survive.
Your help will also allow me to remain mentally positive about my ongoing fight to beat the cancer that has attacked my system. It's not in my nature to quit and given all of the money, energy and time that I have spent to stay alive until now, it would be a crime to simply give up.
I am turning to others via this funding website to see if they can help me with my fight. All donations will be appreciated more than mere words will allow me to express.
Thank you in advance for your compassion and understanding. May all of you be blessed with good health and prosperity.
Sincerely,
Mark Ian Resnick
I personally know from a lifetime of my own medical expenses how deleterious any serious illness can affect one's finances. I have been fighting to stay alive most of my adult life. I now find myself in a position that forces me to ask others to help me so I can continue to fight my Cancer and stay alive.
My entire life savings were depleted because of the cost of my Health Insurance and additional medical expenses for the previous three and a half decades. If this had not been the case, I would most certainly be able to pay my current and future bills. I had an accident when I was 29 years old and spent the better part of a year recovering at The Hospital For Special Surgery in NYC.
Getting older and depleting ones life savings on medical care is depressing, I also realize, had I not received the extraordinary care I did when I was younger, I would not have survived until now. I have read many of the other requests on this website and I know that I am not alone in my financial plight. Because of my preexisting condition the cost of my health insurance was exorbitant for most of my adult life.
My Premium (Motivation / Gifts) Publishing Business FRW Inc., which marketed among other things, subscription renewal premiums to companies like Newsweek, imploded with the publishing industry and was a casualty of the larger financial meltdown. Ultimately, due to lack of sales, I was forced to close the business.
I moved to FL full time in late 2011 after seven months of Radiation and Chemotherapy in NYC through my HMO. I no longer had my former health insurance policy that would have allowed me to use the MD's and hospitals that had helped me survive over the previous three and a half decades.
I moved to an HMO in 2009 because my monthly health insurance premiums were about to jump to $4,800 per month from $4,500 per month. By then, I had almost completely exhausted my financial reserves so I had no other options. Since I was about to turn 65 in January 2012, after moving full time to FL., I waited an additional month for continuing health care. I did this because I was eligible for Medicare in January 2012. What I did not know was that to receive the care I required to stay alive, I would also need to pay for two expensive Supplemental Medicare Health insurance policies. Cancer treatments are not cheap and Medicare doesn't cover everything including many drugs, procedures and incidentals.
To earn money, I started a website called fascinatingeffects.com with Drew Denning. This site was designed to sell items that both of us had inherited or had made by hand ourselves. The hope was that this site would allow us to generate the desperately needed income to remain financially solvent. To date, that has not been the case. The website is still active but it is unfortunately not yet financailly self sustaining.
FYI - I have been receiving Chemotherapy at the Cleveland Clinic in Weston FL. since January 2012. The Chemotherapy is very hard on my system and it's nearly impossible to do anything between treatments.
The medical care I receive at the Cleveland Clinic is excellent and I have a wonderful Oncologist. I now find myself in the financial position, where If I cannot afford the expensive supplemental health insurance policies, (and the cost of the various drug co-pays), I shortly won't be able to continue to receive the level of health care that has sustained my life for the last two years. This is a horrible situation and I quite often feel helpless.
I have had some sales on the fascinatingeffects.com website and I now receive my social security retirement benefits, but my income doesn't even begin to cover the cost of the various Health Insurance Policies, Co-Pays, Health Related incidentals like Dental Care, let alone my Mortgage, Auto Insurance, Car Repairs, Telephone bills, Home Insurance for my Condominium, Real Estate Taxes, Food, etc.
Unfortunately the apartment which I share with Drew Denning is deeply underwater so I cannot sell it. This in no small part is due to the fact that the housing bubble was extremely severe in FL.
Not knowing what to do, and afraid I would not be able to continue to pay my ongoing bills, I have contacted dozens of Cancer Organizations. I qualified for their help, but due to a lack of donations from their supporters they simply could not help me. Our sluggish economy has everything to do with this ongoing financial dilemma.
Asking anybody to help me with my financial problems is something I never thought I would have to do. The whole process of asking for help from anybody, is mortifying and humbling. I desperately need to keep my apartment, and I need to continue to receive the quality medical care at The Cleveland Clinic that will let me survive my battle with Cancer. To accomplish my goals, I find that I have no other options but to reach out to my friends, family, and others for their help and support at this time in my life. As the saying goes, where there is life, there is hope.
Given my enormous medical expenses, I no longer have any discretionary income. I try to live very modestly but my fixed costs keep mounting. Thankfully, some friends and family members including Drew Dennings, have helped with loans and some monetary gifts. These loans and gifts have allowed me to survive this long. I now need to generate more income quickly or I will not be able to pay for my ongoing care or remain in my apartment. It's a choice I would rather not be forced to make.
I am very embarrassed about asking anybody for monetary help and even writing this plea makes me feel worthless. I would much rather earn the money myself, but because of my ongoing illness and the severe side effects from my treatments, my ability to work has been severely compromised. Due to decades of extraordinarily expensive medical care, I now find that I have few alternatives to stay afloat financially other than to turn to a fund raising site like this. Perhaps, had there been an affordable health care act when I was younger, that did not penalize prior preexisting medical conditions, I would not find myself in this current financial predicament.
Contracting an expensive illness after spending the previous three and a half decades dealing with severe and expensive Orthopedic problems isn't easy. I do know that the extraordinary care I received when I was younger at The Hospital For Special Surgery from Dr. Phillip Wilson Jr. and many of the other amazing MD's and staff members, allowed me to survive until now. I take each day as it comes and I realize how fortunate I am to still be alive. Please know that I do try to work when I am well enough to do so. My hope is that one day soon I'll regain enough energy to work full time on the fascinating effects website.
Posting my story on the gofundme.com website hopefully will allow me to reach a larger universe of potential donors. I hope this larger pool of former friends, co workers, and friends of friends, can help contribute something to allow me to continue to receive my health care and the medications I need to survive.
Your help will also allow me to remain mentally positive about my ongoing fight to beat the cancer that has attacked my system. It's not in my nature to quit and given all of the money, energy and time that I have spent to stay alive until now, it would be a crime to simply give up.
I am turning to others via this funding website to see if they can help me with my fight. All donations will be appreciated more than mere words will allow me to express.
Thank you in advance for your compassion and understanding. May all of you be blessed with good health and prosperity.
Sincerely,
Mark Ian Resnick
Organizer
Mark Ian Resnick
Organizer
Fort Lauderdale, FL
