Having Epilepsy and No Health Insurance Can Exact a Heavy Toll. The Plight Is Likely More Common in Texas.
The first sign that Lynda Smith had epilepsy happened almost 20 years ago while she was driving down Interstate 30, near Hope, Arkansas, on her way to work at an HVAC installer.
First her right leg started shaking uncontrollably. Then her right arm did the same. She used her left arm and leg to veer off the highway and push on the brakes. She arrived at work dazed, bawling and still seizing. Her co-workers called an ambulance.
“That was the beginning,” she says.
At the time, Smith, now 50, had no health insurance and turned to a local community health center for help. Doctors tried treating her, but it wasn’t working. She was having up to six seizures a day.
One of the harshest adjustments was losing the ability to drive. Even harsher, she says, was that some providers treated her like she was faking it. Unable to work, she applied for Arkansas Medicaid and qualified as a low-income parent with minors at home.
With coverage, Smith could afford a specialist and more complex care. She got much better, though the medications often made her feel like a “zombie” and she wasn’t seizure-free.
