(Daily Finance) — Marci found a lump in her breast in April of last year. She went to the doctor the next day.  ”The first doctor I saw told me that it was not life threatening, probably a cyst, and that I am too young to worry. I was 33 at the time,” recalls Marci. But when she went for her annual gynecologist visit in late May, that doctor examined her breast and sent her for an ultrasound and mammogram. Those lead to a biopsy of the lump and lymph nodes, both of which came back positive. In June, she was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer.  Marci had worked in the finance industry for 15 years. “I ‘thought’ I had insurance which was provided by my company,” she says. However, after her biopsy, she realized her insurance had a cap of $10,000 a year. “Who reads the small print on that sort of stuff in an 18-page addendum?” asks Marci. “Before I had my first treatment, I was over the maximum benefit.”  She went uninsured for two months until she got coverage through the Ohio High Risk Pool.  ”Thank God for some health care reform. In those two months, I paid $8,000 out of pocket and about $3,000 so far this year. I pay monthly on a $20,000 bill through my treatment center,” says Marci, who lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Read More…