Republicans get sick. Liberals get sick. Independents and politically unaffiliated persons get sick. Illness doesn't show any particular preference for one opinion over the other.
I lived a good piece of my adult life without adequate health care, and at least ten years of my life with very little money and no insurance at all. During one of those periods, I had a classic household accident wherein the palm of my left hand was impaled by a seven-inch Henkels chef's knife at a depth of about a quarter inch. It bled. A lot.
The wound hurt tremendously, but not only in my hand. The pain radiated through my fingers and up through my wrist. I could not bend my middle finger, and my ring finger no longer had full funcionality. Mostly, though, it hurt and bled a lot.
I did my best to clean the wound and close it with butterfly bandages (because you can't buy sutures unless you have a license). I took Ibuprofen and applied ice packs. I feared that my hand would never recover. The only consolation came from knowing I hadn't severed any body parts in the mishap. I had really needed a trip to the emergency room, but there was just no way I was could afford it. I couldn't even afford urgent care or a family doctor. The long-term outcome for me has been a left hand with occasional mild pain and one finger that will never completely bend to the full extent it should. No insurance, no money, no help when I needed it.
Since my current health odyssey began in 2003, I have often taken pause to think about how things would have progressed if I hadn't had medical insurance. Even crappy insurance, which was the case in the beginning. The deductibles are huge. The medications are expensive. The blood work needs to be done on a regular basis. Doctor appointments are not optional.
My husband works for the state, and we live in a state where mental health care parity is mandatory for any insurer doing business with the state or providing insurance to state employees. Millions of other people don't benefit from this safety net. Many insurers will do anything to get out paying claims, and even more to avoid paying for behavioral health expenses. Always the bastard stepchildren.
Within the shouting, confrontations, and misinformation being spread about changing America's health care system, there is a simple truth being missed: People are sick. People are sick with insignificant illnesses that they can't afford to tend to and those small problems are becoming big problems that cost everyone more money. Sometimes they cost the patients their lives and other lives are irrevocably impacted.
Tonight when I logged onto FaceBook, the same message appeared again and again on my new feed:
No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. We are only as strong as the weakest among us.
If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day.
If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day.
I shared this with my family members via email. They love me, but they are conservatives in a big way. I doubt they'll understand how close to home this issue actually has come.
3 comments:
When you cut your hand, you had access to healthcare, but because you didn't have any money, you didn't want to incur the charge which you could have paid off over time and probably at a reduced rate. (As a side note,I personally know even if you had gone received healthcare, you still might have had lingering pain.)
My mama taught me to always save for a rainy day since I was very little.. And so I did when I got a job as a waitress (in a coffee shop)in high school. And I have had a rainy day fund ever since, doing without many things that I wanted or thought I needed. I am teaching my daughters to do the same now that they earn minimum wage. I am teaching them to be responsible for themselves and to be generous with others. My mama also taught me "where there's a will, there's a way" and I believe that even those who don't make very much money can learn how to have a good life without depending on the government. Dave Ramsey has a radio program & website that teaches people, even those who don't make much, how to do manage their finances. I am not affiliated with him.
And please don't vilify those who are against the government option of healthcare as uncaring, because we are not. And, just because I criticize a terrible health care bill(I have read much of it), it doesn't mean I want sick people to die.
I should have pointed out that I am not necessarily in favor of this health care bill as it is written, as I believe it was rushed out before it was properly developed. I keep coming back to a saying--What good is it to go fast if you're headed in the wrong direction? I've never been clear on what the rush was with this bill. It's not an election year.
That being said, there will always be a need for options other than what exists now. From what I have seen, there is so much misinformation being shouted up, that most Americans have fear, dread, and indignation in their hearts to the extent that there is no possibility for any real or practical dialogue about viable solutions to a serious problem. I can't count how many people I've heard say they believe that any plan coming from Washington equals nothing less than a Socialist system with government control of all medical care--and that just isn't true.
When I injured my hand, I never said I didn't have access to care--I said I didn't have the money to pay for it. I am well aware that I could have gone to the ER and paid upwards of $2,000 for care, but I decided that I just could not take on that debt. The hospital couldn't have turned me away, but they absolutely could force me to pay every penny of the bill. The city general hospital here does NOT lower bills (they're too strapped), plus, they contract out their billing to a private agency that does not allow payments to extend beyond one year. At the time, I believed the most fiscally responsible action was to avoid care to avoid a debt I surely couldn't pay. My injury wasn't life-threatening and I couldn't afford the debt. It was not a comfortable decision, but it was the responsible thing to do.
I have repeatedly told my husband that if I get cancer or any illness that is sure to be financially catastrophic, under no circumstances will I seek treatment. What is the point of surviving something so expensive if at the end you're left bankrupt, homeless, weak, and unemployed? What kind of a life is that? I've written about this several times in my blog. It happens to people in this country regularly--I would bet that there are few people who can adequately save for a rainy day of that magnitude.
To your other point, not all people without money got there through fiscal irresponsibility, poor money management skills, or lack of planning.
I am among those who know that sometimes many rainy days come very close together.
Look, I fully understand what many idealists do not: Medical care--every aspect of it--is not a charitable enterprise. It is a for-profit business that owes nothing to anyone except to those who purchase services and medications. Perhaps, though, if there were a government-sponsored option for those who don't qualify for Medicaid, the people in that gap could continue to work, provide for their families, save for a rainy day, and pay their taxes even if they have a heart attack, break a leg, or get appendicitis. I don't understand why so many people are so opposed to the very concept of a community safety net. Not a free ride, just an umbrella for a stormy day.
The point of my post was that a truly important issue that warrants thoughtful discussion is getting lost in a whirlwind of screaming, panic-mongering, and misinformation mixed with a whopping lack of empathy.
Take the time to read the bill.
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h3200/text
Some of it is very tedious.
Many people don't know about just getting catastrophic insurance which is available in most states (and should be available in all). If I was young and healthy, I would rarely need to go to the doctor, so it would be cheaper for me to have a catastrophic policy and pay for my doctors visits out of pocket and have lower monthly premiums. One can build an emergency fund by taking the difference in lowered monthly premiums and putting it in savings so that if/when something happens, you can pay the large deductible and then your catastrophic policy kicks in. There are other ways to lower costs for the current system that we have, & it is very frustrating that NO ONE in Congress has addressed this. I am angry at the Republicans who had control of congress for several years prior to 2006 when the Democrats took over. I am a registered Republican, but consider myself a conservative. The anger that you are seeing now from conservatives is that we trusted our own party to make laws that were closer to a conservative interpretation of the Constitution, but even though Bush claimed to be a conservative,he signed many bills that were not. When Bush signed the bail out bill and it came out what had been going on all during & especially the last few years of the Bush administration,that was what woke us up. Along comes Obama and he puts the liberal agenda into overdrive and it made conservatives stand up & say no, we don't want any more of this. At least that is my take on it.
I have had a very long rainy day being a kitchen designer in the construction industry which has been at a dead stop for almost a year. I have also had some health challenges which have cost me some $$ (& pain) over the past 9 years even with insurance, so I am thankful that I had my mother's instructions about spending less than you make & saving in my head and that I was prepared. It is difficult to constantly be replenishing that emergency fund. I am not sure what age you are, but my health problems started in when I turned 40 & certainly most everyone will have something happen to them healthwise as they get older. Knowing this,people should do everything they can to prepare for it.
A big problem conservatives have with a national, socialized, system is that it has not been established as a right by the Constitution. "The right to life, liberty & pursuit of happiness, does not mean that your neighbors have to feed and clothe you; it means you have the right to earn your food and clothes yourself, if necessary by a hard struggle, and that no one can forcibly stop your struggle for these things or steal them from you if and when you have achieved them. In other words: you have the right to act, and to keep the results of your actions, the products you make, to keep them or to trade them with others, if you wish. But you have no right to the actions or products of others, except on terms to which they voluntarily agree." Leonard Peikoff. With National healthcare plan, everyone is not paying their own share of the cost- some are paying more than they would under a private plan and their would inevitably be increased taxation. This is described in the bill, but I really need to start taking notes as to where these things are. And from the governments track record of going over budget on other programs, it is not the best candidate to take this on, especially when the deficit is already so incredibly large.
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