Problems  in system alter local family’s way of life

Erin Hoeflinger, president of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Ohio, discusses the proposed health care overhaul currently being considered. Staff photo by Jim Witmer

Jim Witmer Erin Hoeflinger, president of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Ohio, discusses the proposed health care overhaul currently being considered. Staff photo by Jim Witmer

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Dr. David Little in his family practice in Beavercreek needs a cutline that fills out from his story. Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!!. Staff photo by Jim Noelker

JAN UNDERWOOD/Dayton Daily News Staff Photogra Dr. David Little in his family practice in Beavercreek needs a cutline that fills out from his story. Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!!. Staff photo by Jim Noelker

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By Ben Sutherly, Staff Writer 10:27 PM Saturday, August 29, 2009

PERRY TWP., Montgomery County — An exceptional sequence of medical calamities left Ron and Mindibeth Wynne in financial ruin.

In June 2000, a freak Jet Ski accident at Eastwood Lake severed Mindibeth’s right ear. In the emergency room at a local hospital, Ron said he unknowingly made a fateful decision in handing his wife’s ear to a plastic surgeon outside his insurance network instead of to an emergency-room doctor.

“The last thing on my mind was insurance,” Ron said. “You assume the premiums you pay are going to result in coverage.” All told, the couple said they had $267,000 in uninsured medical bills that year.

Their medical issues weren’t done.

In September 2005, the Wynnes’ daughter, Amanda, joined the U.S. Air Force. But after passing her physical, she passed out during basic training in Texas. She was diagnosed with a rare form of colorectal cancer. Unfit for service, she was discharged.

Health-insurance providers declined to insure Amanda because of her pre-existing condition, they said. Over the next two years, the Wynnes racked up $1.7 million in bills for medical care for their daughter. Amanda died on Christmas Day 2007.

Ron for years made more than six figures annually as a liquidator but is now unemployed. The family literally went from shopping at Dorothy Lane Market to the food pantry, Mindibeth said.

“I’m not embarrassed that we live below the poverty line,” said Mindibeth. “I’m disappointed in the systems that have put us there.”

The couple said their story underscores the need for a health care overhaul. Specifically, they said, health care insurance companies should be banned from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions. “To impoverish an entire generation of a family because of a health care issue is wrong,” Ron Wynne said.

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