A mother’s health debate

“I’m Nana,’’ Janet Mazzeo, Tom’s wife, was saying, waiting for Tom to drive Haylee home. “I pick her up on Fridays.’’

The door to the apartment swung open and Haylee burst in, making a beeline for her mom, Carolyn Davis, who was home from work early. They hugged.

Two months ago, Carolyn Davis held her breath as 4-year-old Haylee went under for an operation at Children’s Hospital. She was already out of breath, having spent months haggling with Blue Cross-Blue Shield, trying to get all of the surgery covered.

Haylee has Velocardiofacial syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes developmental delays. It also prevents her from producing enamel, something Carolyn Davis found out when she brought Haylee to the dentist in November and was shocked to learn that half of her teeth had cavities.

“The doctors were afraid that four of them might abscess,’’ Carolyn Davis said.

Blue Cross balked at paying for the whole operation. Carolyn Davis got two of her doctors to write letters to Blue Cross. Dr. Amy Roberts and Dr. Youngsun Alice Kim said, unequivocally, that Haylee’s surgery was needed because of her medical condition. Blue Cross doctors deemed some of it dental work. Even with a Blue Cross dental plan, Carolyn Davis was on the hook for $2,200.

Carolyn Davis, who is divorced from Haylee’s father, works full time as a project administrator for a construction company. “My employers are terrific,’’ she said. “They understand my situation and have been very supportive.’’ And the medical care Haylee has received at Children’s is top-notch.

“Haylee has a built-in GPS for Children’s,’’ Carolyn Davis said. “She’s been there so many times, she knows where the car should turn.’’

The problem was getting coverage.

“I can’t tell you how many hours I spent on the phone. I’d be telling the people at Blue Cross that a child who doesn’t eat sugar or junk food or soda should not have her teeth rotting in her head,’’ Carolyn Davis said. “But they wouldn’t budge. And we just couldn’t wait anymore.’’

So her father took out a loan. She is paying him back, $45 a month. Twenty-two hundred bucks might not be much to an insurance company, but it’s a lot to Carolyn Davis. “The really frustrating thing is, I’m a single mom, living on my own,’’ she said. “I’d be better off if I didn’t work. That’s crazy. In this country, you have to be really rich or really poor to get medical care without fighting the insurance companies. If I didn’t have all the support from my family, my mom, my dad, my aunt, I could never do this.’’

Jay McQuaide, a spokesman for Blue Cross, insists this isn’t a case of a big bad insurance company stiffing a hard-working single mom. He said that Blue Cross paid out $10,127 to cover Haylee’s medical costs, but that Davis had to pick up $2,200 because it was for work Blue Cross doctors considered purely dental.

The teachers at the Johnson are terrific, and Haylee’s progress over the last year has been noticeable.

“What worries me is I could go through this again,’’ Carolyn Davis said. “The doctors said there’s just no way to tell whether Haylee will need more operations down the road. I don’t want to spend my life fighting with an insurance company.’’

So while some wail about socialism, and the doctors blame the insurance companies and the insurance companies blame the doctors, Carolyn Davis sits in a small apartment in North Weymouth, dreaming dreams for her little girl, feeling sick every time she gets an invoice from the hospital.

Carolyn Davis hasn’t followed the health care debate. “To be honest,’’ she said, looking down at Haylee, “I’ve just been too busy.’’

Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com.