Every job/career decision I’ve ever made has come down to health insurance benefits.

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I often wonder where I might be in my career today if I hadn’t had to choose between finishing college in my early 20’s like most or getting a full time job at age 19, just so I’d have health insurance.

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There wasn’t even a choice, really.

With chronic illness since the age of 9, and having undergone 9 surgeries by age 19, including permanent ostomy surgery that requires about $800 worth of supplies a month, not having insurance would have been a death sentence, both physically and financially.

So I’ve always (or my husband has always) made career decisions based of the medical benefits the job provided.

And now, my medical insurance is failing me.

In 2017, after years of chronic pelvic pain, I underwent a hysterectomy that in theory should have resolved my pain. It didn’t. In fact, things got worse.

For 4 years, I sought every specialist available to try to determine what was causing this pain. By that time, I’d already undergone 18 abdominal surgeries for Crohn’s disease and my abdomen was riddled with scar tissue, so diagnostics were difficult. After years of trigger point injections, pain psychologists, and pelvic floor therapy, I met a pelvic pain specialist who, as a last ditch effort, put me on an endometriosis medication and miraculously, within 48 hours I was pain-free for the first time in close to 7 years.

Now, having taken this medication for 4 years, and reclaimed my health and life, it is no longer available to me.

My health insurance quit covering it 2 years ago, but thankfully I’d gotten it free from the manufacturer assistance plan the last two years. Unfortunately I no longer qualify for that program.

My pain specialist re-submitted a request for prior authorization to my insurance for the medication for this year, but it’s been denied, and denied on appeal.

The insurance company stated I’d need to use a different medication (one that is much riskier to me because of my history of blood clots), but then turned around and denied the authorization for that one too.

So now I'm without ANY medication, and the prospect of returning to a life of constant pain.

I never thought I'd need to even consider crowd funding for medical expenses, given that I’m a nurse and work for a prestigious health system that offers great health insurance (with the exception of this one classification of medication apparently).

But here I am. Out of pocket cost for this med in the United States is astronomical - around $1400 for 28 days.

It is available significantly cheaper from Canada, but it’s still more than I can afford.

I hoping I can raise enough to buy a years worth of medication from a Canadian pharmacy, giving me and my pain specialist time to pursue other options. There is a radiation oncology procedure that might be helpful, but due to my altered anatomy it may not be possible, and because it would be considered an experimental treatment, insurance likely won’t cover it either.

I’m not one who likes to ask for help; I’m used to being the one doing the helping.

But I’m setting my pride aside because I can’t fathom returning to the type of pain I lived with for so many years.

The fact that there was such an easy fix- a medication that lowers estrogen- and now because of insurance bureaucracy I don’t have access to that solution just further highlights the need for healthcare reform in this country.

I appreciate any donation, even $1. If you can’t give, please consider sharing to bring awareness.

Thank you.

Kristin Knipp