One evening about two weeks ago, I experienced firsthand the meaning of living without healthcare. My ailing husband was hospitalized in one of our local hospitals. Because he has renal failure, thank God, he is covered by Medicare.
But for my 12-year-old son and me, we live with the fear of not getting medical care. In our hometown, we have no family, but we have some good friends. With my husband cooped up in the hospital fighting for his life, one of those wonderful friends had prepared dinner for my son and me that night.
I had been running like a chicken with its head cut off. Throughout the week, I had been going from the hospital to pick up my son from football practice, taking him back to the hospital for a brief moment to see his dad, and back home to help him with homework, if he had any. And to top it off, I had my own school work. I am working on getting my master’s in social work at our local university.
So, that evening, I had it all planned. My friend was going to drop off our dinner at football practice. I had packed up our eating utensils. I was going to pick up my son, grab the food and head off to the hospital.
But when I got to the field, my son was sitting to the side holding his head, while his friends were practicing. Instantly, I knew something was wrong. The night before, he had been coughing lightly. I called him to the side, felt his head. He was burning up.
I decided that instead of going to the hospital to see his dad, we would go to the nearest urgent care center -- one that I had taken him to before when we had insurance.
As we were checking in, the intake lady asked me if all our information was correct. I told her all of it was, except that we no longer had insurance.
Well, then she told me, "the doctor’s fee will start at $95, and if your son needs lab work, the fee would be higher." I told her that I thought my son would not need all of that -- that could the doctor treat him for just the $95 -- even though I did not have 95 cents on my person. I told her that I had no money. But that was hardly her concern. Being unemployed, and living on a shoestring budget with my husband's disability and my graduate assistantship, money is always short.
"In fact, you will have to pay $50 up front before the doctor can see him," she followed. I told her my son was burning up, coughing and was just miserable. "I’m sorry, she said, but the doctor won’t see him until you pay."
Tears welled up in my eyes. I felt like someone had punched me in my stomach. I will never forget that night. What was I supposed to do? My only other option was to take my son to the emergency room. I dreaded the thought. That meant a long night in the emergency room.
Desperate, I called my sister, who lives in Maryland. She’s a struggling single-mother herself, but always came to my rescue. She left her home that evening to wire me the money to get my child seen.
In the back room, the doctor did not swab my son to check for the flu. But she diagnosed him any way with having the flu. She said that based on CDC guidelines, if the child hand one or more of the symptoms my son exhibited, coughing, fever, he had the flu. She prescribed Tamiflu and some other over the counter remedies. I could not afford Tamiflu. And so I bought the others.
My son, took the over the counter medicines and began to feel better. Then a day later, I began feeling like I was coming down with the cold -- the scratchy throat, cough. Having had the experience with my son at the urgent center, I went to one of our local Walgreens pharmacies. I explained my symptoms to the pharmacists. I told him I had no insurance, but I wanted something to help stave off what ever it was that was coming my way. He made a recommendation. I bought the over the counter medicine and began gulping it. Somehow it worked. My symptoms went away, and you can only imagine my great relief.
I don’t know what the future holds for health care reform in the Senate, but I pray that the likes of Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Ingram and others who publicly say they will stand in its way will move to the side so that people like me and my son won’t have to endure what we did recently. Moreover, I have read that even if the bill becomes law, it won’t be available until 2013. I hope the president and Congress will reconsider and move the date up. Too many people are suffering and lots of others are dying without out care. This is just unacceptable in this country.