When a series of health crises hit all at once, Julianne found herself moving between specialists who only saw her symptoms. She didn't just need a doctor, she needed someone to see the whole picture.
Julianne is a "stay on top of it" person. She’s a self-employed professional used to managing her own path. Three years ago, she chose Oscar for a simple, practical reason: the plan felt clear and understandable.
But recently, her health became anything but clear.
Within a four-month window, Julianne’s world was upended by a relentless series of medical events. A severe finger injury required surgery; then came an endometrial cancer diagnosis and a hysterectomy; shortly after, a thyroid procedure. Amidst the surgeries, a condition she had lived with for 20 years began to shift, leading to a new bone marrow biopsy and a flurry of conflicting opinions.
Exhausted with fragmented care
As Julianne was passed from specialist to specialist, she felt a growing sense of isolation. "Everybody was just looking at their specialty," Julianne recalls. "I felt like in medicine, nobody has the time. Ultimately, there’s a lot of apathy from broken systems."
She felt "poked and prodded" —at one point enduring 29 tubes of blood in a single draw — while doctors debated her diagnosis. One week she was told she had Lupus; the next, a different doctor disagreed. Even for Julianne, who works as an attorney and spends her life navigating complex legal systems for others, the healthcare system felt impossible to manage alone. She felt overwhelmed, deflated, and truly alone.