A message from Mark:

What a pleasure it was to talk to Laurie. After fighting her own battle and winning, she found herself the focal point of an online patient community and worked tirelessly to support her fellow patients in need. The information in this book is absolute gold to anyone who is embarking on their own battle to gain access to, or insurance coverage for appropriate medical care. She shares this information so generously.

She's donated a copy to the iSpine patient community where it will be available to borrow, free of charge from the lending library. (GPN will even pay for shipping!) This book is self published and sold by Laurie on her website. No Amazon, no Borders, no Buy.com. If you are fighting your own battle, the information in this book will help. Buy a copy, then as Laurie says... "Give it away, share it! Put it out there for those who need it."

Power to the Patient!
- quote stolen from John Engelhardt

An open letter from Laurie Todd to the iSpine patient community:

I am the Insurance Warrior. In March 2005, I was diagnosed with a metastasized abdominal cancer. My oncologist said, "There is no treatment for your disease. And, even if there were, they wouldn't pay for it." I had to become the Insurance Warrior in order to save my own life.

Many would have gotten angry, many would have despaired. I took it as a challenge -- red flag in front of the bull, as it were. I had just been through a massive abdominal surgery. By now, I had lost my business, my income, my savings. I had no partner to help, no influence, no connections.

Within three weeks, I had found the world's expert on appendix cancer. I borrowed frequent flyer miles to consult with him in Washington, D.C., then returned to Seattle to figure out how to make my health insurer pay.

I approached the insurance appeal as legal problem, not a medical problem. I figured, “If I had all the money in the world, I would hire the finest attorney in the land. So ... the only alternative is to turn myself into the finest quasi-attorney in the land, and bluff my way through.” Which I did. For two months I studied, read, grabbed free advice, spent hours at the library studying the administrative codes of Washington, lawsuits against health insurers, etc. I wrote my War Documents. Three days later, the insurer called me, “We have decided to pay.”

As soon as I returned home from my second massive surgery and chemotherapy -- and I was well enough to answer the phone -- people started calling, “Could you help me? My health insurer won’t pay.”During 2006, I worked with people ... wrote, edited, coached, encouraged, plagiarized my own appeal. We won dozens of these denial of care cases, never lost one.

I was exhausted by fighting all of these battles. I thought, “How can I get out from under all of this free work, while still helping people?”My best solution? Write down all of my strategies, and give it for free. Once I got done writing, I realized that this was a book. I wrote a grant proposal, and persuaded a cancer foundation to fund the project. I turned myself into a publisher, and published it myself.

It is time for me to lift myself out of the trenches and move on to the public speaking. I intend to help the greatest number of people, raise a generation of Insurance Warriors.

As health insurers hold more and more tightly to the dollars, we need hundreds of Insurance Warriors -- at least one for every disease and condtion. One motivated person has to write the Alpha Appeal, with impeccable proof, ample precedent, and powerful legal verbiage. Get the thing accepted, then purge the names and share with all.

You must come from a position of power at all times. Remember, the health insurer is not calling your treatment "experimental" because it IS experimental, they are calling it "experimental" because they don't want to pay for it.

This book is my gift to you. Don't just read it, use it.

Laurie Todd
The Insurance Warrior

Midwest Book Review July 2007

According to Reader's Digest in April of 2006, seven in ten adults who were driven into debt by medical expenses had insurance at the time. Author Laurie Todd had health insurance when she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, but in order to obtain the expensive treatment necessary to save her life, she had to battle her insurance company tooth and nail. Fight Your Health Insurer and Win: Secrets of the Insurance Warrior is a distillation of what she learned -- a lifesaving, no-nonsense guide written especially for sufferers of cancer and other deadly medical afflictions. Chapters cover how to qualify one's own doctors (and make sure one's provider is not only generally competent, but an expert in one's specific affliction), manage one's own care, find the best care possible for one's disease, and force one's health insurer to bear the full cost (a common practice among insurers is to pay an "out-of-network benefit" that covers only 60%-80% of the cost -- which is just not enought when some surgeries can cost $200,000 or more). Also discussed are how to research the life's work of one's physician on Google and ask him questions about his practice (it's important to listen to the tone of the answers as well as the answers themselves); why terms like "experimental/investigational procedures" and "medically necessary" are little more than manipulative word-dancing meant to frighten away people from demanding insurance payment; how to respectfully and persuasively present one's case to insurance industry bureaucrats and medical professionals who may have a vested financial interest in your imminent death (if you die quickly, they don't have to pay for your treatment); and much more. Sample letters, step-by-step procedures, guidelines for telephone conversations, and above all the admonition to never give up infuse Fight Your Health Insurer and Win with literally life-giving energy and wisdom. Highly recommended, and an absolute "must-have" for anyone who has paid their health insurance dues.

Susan Bethany
Reviewer
www.midwestbookreview.com