About a month ago, I lost my health insurance. Within three weeks, I had gotten it back. Just a few days after I notified Washington Hospital Center that my insurance was gone, they took me off the kidney waiting list.
They claimed I was kicked off the list not just because of a lack of insurance but also because of non-compliance – that I should already be on dialysis. But it seems a little suspicious that I was on the waiting list for two and a half years (see www.mikeneedsakidney.com) and then a few days after I notified them that I’d lost my health insurance, they took me off the list and wouldn’t put me back on even after I told them my insurance was reinstated.
After spending three weeks getting my health insurance back, I’ve now spent another
week trying to get back on the WHC waiting list. It seems I’d have a better chance getting one from the Wizard of Oz (on TBS right now). (That reminds me, one of the great signs was put up years ago on a 
beltway overpass before the Mormon Temple. The sign said, “Surrender Dorothy!” since the temple looks like the Emerald City). At least there’s a better chance of getting a kidney there that than going back to the Wicked Witch of the West (WHC). Though I just saw the scene where they go to the Wizard and his assistant says, “Go away!”
Then there are the lyrics from the song “Tin Man” by America: ”Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man, That he didn’t, didn’t already have.” Luckily, I’m still on another list, and if I get a donor, the list will be irrelevant, though there is a scenario in which being kicked off the list would cost me my life. 
Tags: Grinch, kidney transplant, TBS, waiting list, Washington Hospital Center, Wizard of Oz
