"It's probably not a good idea to go into surgery without having paid the anesthesiologist yet," Melanie Winter joked in the admissions office at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Monday. But her options were limited.
Winter had kidded that she might have to marry one of the volunteers at her nonprofit agency so she could use his health insurance to get a new hip.
A friend had suggested she move to Canada for a while and take advantage of its national healthcare system.
Instead, having gone nearly 20 years without insurance and unable to buy it because of her preexisting condition, Winter hobbled up to the doors of Cedars-Sinai with the help of a walker, prepared to pay $40,000 for hip replacement surgery.
"Your doctor's name?" asked a clerk.
"Penenberg," said Winter, 49, a lanky former dancer and actress, as she winced away the pain.
David Brunk, a Mount Washington resident and volunteer at Winter's agency, the River Project, had driven her to the hospital and helped with her bags. He said he and others were grateful for the lead role Winter had played in turning the Taylor Yard railroad property in Cypress Park into Rio de Los Angeles State Park.
"She has a great spirit and has been doing this work for not much pay, and she doesn't even live near the park," Brunk said of the Studio City resident, who has worked on open-space and river preservation projects for years.
That's why, when Winter needed surgery, people came through, Brunk said. Grateful Cypress Park residents and other supporters held a fundraising party with live mariachi music. Friends set up the Melanie Winter Medical Fund at www.hip4mel.net.
It's crazy that it came to this, but with roughly $25,000 raised, Winter had enough to make a down payment and schedule the surgery.
In the admissions office, a clerk said she needed to pony up a $250 fee before she would be taken to pre-op. Winter insisted she had made arrangements to pay it later, and after a bit of back-and-forth, the clerk relented.
Winter says she earns too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to be able to afford a good health insurance plan, even if she could find a company willing to cover her.
"It's insane," Winter said, telling me she was last covered as a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Since then, she has tried to live a healthy lifestyle and avoided medical care except when absolutely necessary. In rare cases, she paid cash for doctor visits or went to an L.A. County hospital.
