9/11 retirees struggle for medical care in southwest Florida

LEE COUNTY

Brave men and women worked hard to save lives during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

But now, years later and retired in southwest Florida, they are struggling to get the medical care they need.

“I was like most of my friends and co-workers on September 11,” said Bill McMahon, a retired New York Police Sergeant who has lived in southwest Florida for 10 years. “They said the air was safe, obviously it wasn’t.”

McMahon said there are about 700 NYPD retirees in southwest Florida in need of medical care, but some health care providers, including Lee Health, are not buying their health insurance.

“There are doctors everywhere down here. And we just drive past and we can’t drive in, ”said McMahon.

This is the situation in which Andrea DiNella finds himself. She has retired from the New York Police Department.

“I was told that after 25 years of service, I would have medical care for the rest of my life,” DiNella said.

Others like Eric Bergstrom, who has retired from the NYPD, are in dire straits.

“Unfortunately I have developed cancer since 9/11. Prostate cancer, ”said Bergstrom.

A well-known cancer center in Tampa did not cover Bergstrom’s health insurance, so he had to drive to New York’s Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital for care for treatment, Bergstrom said.

His wife Theresa Bergstrom has also retired from the NYPD. In her case, a neurologist from Punta Gorda canceled an appointment the night before.

“We were all dead. And now we have no health care,” she said.

Your provider is Emblem Health, an insurance company based in New York City. Many retirees say they chose Emblem health insurance because it was the cheaper pension package.

When they retired in Florida, Emblem Insurance was accepted, but those contracts have since expired.

“We had doctors. They were taken away from us. Now we need doctors. We are old. and we need care and we want it, because that’s what we were promised, ”said Theresa Bergstrom.

WINK News asked Emblem if the company was trying to renew these contracts, a spokesman declined to comment, saying, “We do not comment on discussions or negotiations with vendors.”

“We either lost our doctors in retirement or they are being taken over by local companies like Lee Health, Millennium,” said McMahon. “And because of that … then they no longer accept our reporting.”

The alternative is to return to New York every time they need to see a doctor.

But that is not practical.

“Travel back and forth and the storms. I mean, it was brutal, ”said Joe Poliseno, a retired New York firefighter.

The World Trade Center program provides medical surveillance and treatment, but these 9/11 retirees said it takes more time than they have.

DiNella has a steady income, she said.

And 9/11 left them with a number of problems.

“I have to fly up because I heard down here that it is difficult to get doctors,” said DiNella. “I’m kind of stuck.”

To help others in his situation, McMahon created a Facebook group for 9/11 retirees where they can share information from doctors.

“At first it was just Florida and then it just started,” said McMahon. “Next you know, South Carolina, Texas.”

Dinella said there are so many people like her who don’t know what to do.

“This is such a bad situation.”

See similar https://www.winknews.com/2021/10/29/9-11-retirees-struggling-to-get-healthcare-in-swfl/

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