Help Local 46 apprentice with medical costs

Hello, my name is Bee Miele, a 24y/o 3rd year Inside Wire apprentice out of Local 46.

I have been planning on surgery for months, in December. It lined up with my 3rd year coming to a close and my job slowing down so it was the perfect timeline to get this massive, life-saving, 14 hour long surgery. My initial claim I filed was in early July, and took over 10 denial appeals and a lawsuit threat to get it covered and although my surgeon was in-network, my insurance deem’d his facility out-of-network last second in late Oct, dropping a massive bill of $80,000 on me which was expected to be fully covered by November 18th which If not, I will lose my surgery date of December 9th and will require me to get surgery after my 4th year in late 2025 early 2026.

Finding a different surgeon would take months just for a consultation let alone an actual surgery date, my surgeon is one of the only surgeons in the world willing to do both FFS, and Top surgery in the same day, this condenses downtime off of work and highly reduces total costs doing what is usually 3 different surgeries, months and months of recovery, well over $250-300,000, to $125,000 in a day, with a two month recovery date.

I have broken every piggy bank, and with every dollar I own, every credit card maxed out to 100%, and a loan I have already been approved of for 10k from our Local’s credit union, I have $36,000.

Insurance would have covered it nearly 100%, but because of the last second out of network facility card they played, their coverage was $47,000. Meaning I am now looking at an out-of-pocket cost of $78,000, due Nov 18th.

Brothers, Sisters, Siblings from any Union, and anyone else generous enough to support me, any dime helps. I need more than $46,000, but any amount over what I could cover myself with credit cards is money I can not ask for without a guilty conscious. I am prepared to max out every capability I have at my disposal even if it mean’s bankruptcy with credit cards killing me. I need this surgery, this is not a case of me being impatient and entitled, this was an insurance company that played me and left me to dry. This surgery can not wait, I will not make it to next September of 2025, this whole ordeal was unfair and forces a deadline on my life.

Thank you,

Bee Miele, card# 8302444

proud to be an active member of Local 46 in our women’s committee, EWMC, mentorship program, and PAC.