My uncle passed away when I was 15 after a 6-month battle with esophageal cancer that spread to his stomach and lungs when chemotherapy failed. He had insurance, had been with the same provider for at least a decade. They denied him coverage for a different treatment that probably would have saved his life because it was deemed “experimental”. They also cut off payments halfway through his hospital stay and he died in a rest home leaving behind massive debt. For 6 months after he passed, my mother, whom collectors mistook for his wife because she had been his power of attorney, received daily phone calls asking her to pay his debt down from his leftover healthcare bills. She had just lost her brother and had to spend up to an hour each day telling people to stop calling her, hanging up the phone in tears because it reawakened her grief. He had insurance, she shouldn’t have to deal with this on top of trying to cope with his death. I know this story is all too familiar in the current world of HMOs.
Then there is the other side of the spectrum, the uninsured. I haven’t had health insurance since I was 18. I managed the mandatory visits, the small fees here and there for those checkups too important to skip. But I never go in for expensive tests. I put off going in if I was sick until I absolutely can’t avoid it anymore because I couldn’t pay for health care and pay my bills at the same time. And I know I’m not alone in this, that my story probably echoes many stories out there. I keep hearing this argument that I chose not to have health insurance. Yes, I chose to go to college and simultaneously have a roof over my head and food to eat. I chose to only apply for part time jobs with flexible hours during my college years because I needed to work around my class schedule. I chose to get an education with the hopes of getting a better job in the future rather than get no education and probably still be stuck in a job with no insurance. I chose all these things, and they were all very tough choices to make.
My father refused to help me pay for college. I started at 16 through an early admissions program, continued through age 24 to receive 2 degrees. I went multiple years as a part time student after Texas tuition was deregulated and the rates rose. I took one semester below half time and the next semester completely off to work and save extra money for my final year. In all this time, I only had federal aid (work study and Stafford loans) for one year because my father refused to give me his tax information to apply for the FAFSA. I have no idea why, something to do with making my own way in the world. I worked 40-60 hours a week in sometimes up to 4 different jobs while juggling a pretty intellectually grueling degree for my first half of college. I also managed to tear a ligament in my ankle and be hospitalized for an allergic reaction to black mold during this time. Without insurance, I wasn’t able to afford surgery for my ankle, which didn’t heal correctly and still has problems over 6 years later. I talked the doctors out of keeping me overnight (a stay I would never be able to afford) for the black mold allergy and was bedridden for a week at my parents’ house trying to recover. During my second degree, somewhat less intellectual but more physically demanding and time consuming, I contracted acute bronchitis. I let it get to the point where I couldn’t speak, could barely breathe, and basically couldn’t function at work or school before I found time go to the doctor. This trip wasn’t as expensive as the hospital visit, but I still had to borrow from my mother to buy the antibiotics and pay the doc. And I hate borrowing money, it makes me feel like an unemployed moocher. I had two more relapses over the next 6 months before I completely recovered. I know this history isn’t that traumatic. But these are just the health issues for which I was forced to seek help. I have scars, burns, other minor things that probably should have been treated properly. I fell off a chair into a printer table at 19 years old leaving a jagged cut down my thigh to my calf that needed stitches. I sealed it with superglue. When you can’t afford the hospital visit, you learn to get creative. I toughed out colds and normal wear and tear with OTC cough syrup and pain killers. I suffered through years of migraines with Excedrin proving my only friend.
Like I said, probably pretty tame compared to most stories. And that’s exactly my point. A lot of people work 40-60 hours a week just to pay for food, shelter, gas, car, living necessities to make it day to day. For them, insurance is a luxury. A lot of minimum-wage (or part time) jobs don’t provide insurance or pay well enough for the employee to provide for themselves. We already have Medicaid for children and Medicare for the elderly. Is it really that much to give an option to functional adults so they require LESS care when they age, where we'd spend less on Medicare for diseases caught or prevented early?
For me this is a question of how our society should be viewed - if benevolent aliens landed tomorrow, would you really want to be seen as a culture that let people suffer because they weren’t lucky enough to be born rich or skilled enough to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps? Try putting yourself in someone else’s shoes if the alien scenario doesn’t do it for you. What if you were to suddenly suffer misfortune such as, oh I don’t know, losing your job and being unable to find one before your health insurance expires? Would you want to be without health care because you chose to not find another job in this market or not pay for it out of pocket when that meant sacrificing another necessity like rent or electricity? I know this isn’t an ideal world, nothing is perfect. But maybe the path to civilization is learning to give a little extra to help your fellow man, knowing that fellow man is also giving a little extra to help you. You know, love they neighbor as thyself and all that. Call me a hippie, call me a commie, call me whatever you want, but I still believe the world would be a better place if we reached out a hand to help instead of a fist to punch. Then again, what do I know? I'm just a leftist, liberal, commie, socialist, know-nothing raised on TV and bad star trek episodes with a strange affinity for horror movies.
Oh Jon Stewart, you say it so much better than I possibly could:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Drag Me to Health | ||||
| ||||
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Drag Me to Health - Universal Health Care | ||||
| ||||
No comments:
Post a Comment