For newly insured, program a blessing

Margaret Buoniconti's life has been filled with hardship since her husband committed suicide seven years ago. First came the financial troubles of raising two teenage girls alone. Then, the deepening of her own long standing depression. And finally, the loss of her health insurance 15 months ago.

She couldn't afford the antidepressant that gave her some relief. Therapy was out of the question.

"Many, many times, I would be crying on my brother's shoulder," said Buoniconti, 54, of West Springfield. "I just wanted to curl up in a corner."

When she heard about the state's new subsidized insurance programs last fall, she applied immediately and was enrolled in March after paying her first $71 monthly premium. It's affordable on the $25,000 salary she earns managing the office of a doctor who doesn't offer her insurance.

Most important , she can again afford her antidepressant and gets free therapy, which is helping her learn "not to dwell on the things that are bad."

"I'm almost back to my old self again," she said. "It's been better with my kids. I can relate more to them. It's great."

For years, Brian Calvey tried to treat himself for acid reflux. He would search the Internet for remedies, then buy what he could afford at the drug store. Without health insurance, he sometimes got free samples from a doctor friend, but he was afraid to turn to the friend too often.

As the condition worsened, it began burning his throat, threatening the singing that is both his work and his calling.

Calvey, 55, and his wife, Phyllis, live in Bellingham on small stipends from evangelical Catholic churches that pay them to conduct retreats, catechist training, and other instruction, reinforced by Brian Calvey's songs.

"I was very crippled for a while," said Calvey. Every time he sang, he would get a sore throat that lasted hours. He worried about seriously damaging his esophagus.

Once, when it got particularly bad, he went to a hospital emergency room and received free care. In December, they both enrolled in one of the state's new insurance plans. The state pays the full premium. And Brian now sees a doctor who specializes in stomach problems as well as a primary-care physician. He's taking medicine that is slowly healing him.

"It's under control now," he said. "We're very happy."

Tom Perkins arrived at South Shore Hospital's emergency room in December with chest pains and trouble breathing.

Because of strife with his boss, he'd recently quit an auto body repair job that provided insurance. Then his heart starting acting up.

Hospital doctors diagnosed cardiomyopathy, a dangerous weakening of the heart, and stabilized him with medication. Hospital staff covered most of the bills for his six-day stay with funds from the state's free-care pool, while helping him sign up for a new state-subsidized insurance plan. He's temporarily disabled by the heart condition, so the state is paying the full cost of insurance. Perkins, 53, rents an apartment in Abington, where he moved about three years ago from his native Rockland.

Last month, he went back to the hospital to get a pacemaker and a defibrillator placed in his chest -- precautions to shock his heart back to normal if it goes haywire.

"The insurance really saved me," he said. "I would have been looking at medical bills of $50,000 to $60,000 at least. Now, if anything comes up, I'm not going to hesitate, because I know it's covered."