IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Tale of Two Cities; Book 1, Chapter 1, by Charles Dickens
It might seem incredibly trite to use this overused passage from Dickens, but I can't think of something more apt.
Dickens wrote a lot about social injustice. It is quite illustrative that in his native England concern for social justice produced the National Health Service. Dickens writings are often given some credit for that concern.
It's hard to imagine anyone who venerates Ayn Rand's work understanding much less appreciating the work of Charles Dickens.
So why did I borrow the title and twist it? Beyond that the first paragraph of the book speaks to this whole mess of HCR, my oldest children are the comparison.
I have been married twice. My first marriage ended (officially) in 1986, though in reality it ended 1 1/2 years earlier. My second marriage is still going strong 20 years later. From both marriages I have two children, with 6 years in between the last of "group 1" and the beginning of "group 2."
My oldest children are a daughter, age 25 and a son, soon to be 23.
For the past 3 years my daughter has lived in Colorado, while we and my oldest son reside in Massachusetts.
To help her get free and stay free of a toxic relationship we footed the bill of moving her 2,000 miles away, to live and be emotionally supported by my family, including my parents.
I'll save you all my comments and references to the "boy in a man's body" that used my daughter and abused her, redirected her from her education and abused our faith, trust and support in my daughter. Actually "boy in a man's body" is one of the only two nice things one will ever hear me say about him. The other is that to this point he is staying away (may he continue that wise policy).
After getting her head on straight, and then dealing with the death of her dad (my ex-husband, a Vietnam Vet) she started back to school. She has been working toward a degree in nursing (just like Onomastic's son) and was going strong with a great GPA until last semester.
Last semester things began to fall apart with her health. It started with three impacted (and infected) wisdom teeth that never had a chance of breaking through. The oral surgery to break into her jaw and dig these teeth out was expensive. Being a student she had (and has) no insurance. My parents, my husband and I split the bill and paid for the surgery. Even on the sliding scale this was expensive.
The antibiotics and pain medication was also an additional expense. The time, almost a month, she spent bedridden would have probably been the end to any low level job (like waiting tables) she might hold while attending school, she was let go of that job when the economy turned downward. As it was this surgery and recovery dropped her GPA into the 2s.
Once she recovered, finished the semester the best she could, moved from her apartment because they were raising her rent to an amount she could not pay. Without a job she turned to selling her blood plasma so that she could eat and afford gas (my parents have been helping her with rent). She had done this before and felt quite confident that she could do it again, twice a week, and be okay.
The third time she gave plasma she had to spend some time in the ER afterward because her whole body was wracked with pain and she was having difficulty moving her arm. She gained an ER bill, that even under sliding scale she could not pay and my parents, my husband and I were tapped out because of the oral surgery.
She thought that this trip to the ER was because she hadn't drunk enough liquids before. Trying to be as self sufficient as possible, and ignoring all our advice and wishes, she went to give plasma again. That night her entire body froze into what can be described as a giant muscle cramp. There wasn't a limb or appendage that wasn't seized, the paramedics couldn't get her out of the fetal position to access her properly.
The pain she was in was so intense it was amazing she didn't pass out. My parents and her friends raced to the hospital, and stayed with her while she was treated. Later she was fine, but under orders that there would be no more selling blood plasma.
She has another huge bill (even with the sliding scale), an ambulance bill, and told me last week when we were there for a visit that she has constant stomach pain. But she has no health insurance, no wish to gain another bill, no ability to get the medication and care she needs, and no wish to return to Massachusetts.
I swallow hard as I write this, for I am worried for my only daughter.
In just a few weeks my eldest son will turn 23. Like his sister he had difficulty dealing with his father's death. Like his sister he has had to spend time getting his head on straight, including dealing with being a passenger in an auto accident that had a pedestrian in black clothing come through the windshield and die in his lap on a lampless road one dark night.
He has had asthma since he was 6 months old, and a permanent hole in is cornea right next to his iris due to a paintball injury since he was 17 (an injury recruiter were going to joyfully ignore trying to make their quota during the height of Iran and Afghanistan). Because of this injury he must always wear sunglasses outside or in bright rooms and does not go to a "regular" eye doctor, but one at the Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary.
He currently in college studying Mechanical Engineering and on his 23rd birthday our health insurance will no longer cover him.
Unlike my daughter however, he has RomneyCare(tm). As long as he lives here he will have health insurance, either paid for by the company he works for and himself or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
AS long as he stays here, in Massachusetts he will be covered. He will get to see a doctor and not worry too much about the bill, if he has a major health problem he will have some form of insurance helping him out (hopefully). This is one major factor in the decision he is making of whether to stay here or join his sister.
"Nobody in Massachusetts will ever be turned away for health care," he says.
Gov. Romney, a Republican and a former businessman, bases his support on economics. When Romney became governor three years ago, a business colleague urged him to do something about the 500,000 or more Massachusetts residents without health insurance. Nearly nine out of ten are in working families.
After studying the problem, Romney says, he came away with a key insight: "People who don't have insurance nonetheless receive health care. And it's expensive."
Medical care for Massachusetts patients who lack health insurance is paid for by businesses. Companies -- mostly ones that already offer coverage to their employees -- subsidize a fund that pays for so-called "free" care when uninsured people end up in hospitals.
"We're spending a billion dollars giving health care to people who don't have insurance," Romney says. "And my question was: Could we take that billion dollars and help the poor purchase insurance? Let them pay what they can afford. We'll subsidize what they can't."
-npr
When this was passed Ed Schultz declared that those opposed to universal health care had now lost.
Romney the Republican Presidential Hopeful suffered a great deal of amnesia when it came to why he supported this plan, and the why of the plan at all.
In promoting the plan, Romney brushes off those in his party who attacked the plan as just another big-government scheme. He emphasized that those who can afford insurance should get it.
"Otherwise you're just passing your expenses on to someone else," Romney said. "That's not Republican, that's not Democratic, that's not Libertarian. That's just wrong."
Even the recently updated CNN article proclaims RomneyCare(tm) as the "model for national health care reform."
But while RomneyCare is better than anything offered (or not offered) in any other state or commonwealth it still puts one at the mercy of insurance companies.
* Minimum benefits, such as preventive care, mental health care and hospitalization
* A ban on gender discrimination
* Limits on total out-of-pocket costs
* A prohibition on pre-existing conditions as a qualifier for health coverage
* No medical underwriting, so insurers can't ask an individual about his or her health status in order to determine coverage
* Limits on age restrictions, which means what is charged for an older individual cannot be more than double what is charged the youngest.
I experienced what an insurance company, unable to exclude me because of a pre-existing condition, but free of real competition and "manner minding" that a public option would bring, did to try and get out of paying for much needed surgery.
They tried to pressure the hospital where I was to have this surgery, my doctor who was to perform the surgery and finally me into not having it all together. Oh those phone calls were fun! (not)
My surgery was day surgery that I went home and was walking around from a few hours later. I don't know, but fear for those having much more involved surgery.
How much different would they have acted if they knew I could jump their plan, vote with my feet, and choose a public plan?
My insurance is pretty good, it's not the best Massachusetts has to offer, there are better (and before cost cutting moves of the company we were on one of the better plans/companies), it's certainly not the worst (BCBS I'm looking at you. Unfortunately they seemed to have thrived with Romneycare. Wonder how many after car accidents ambulance rides they've denied this year in MA alone.)
Romneycare may be a template but it still leaves insurance companies in control of too much and the people in control of too little. And it's cost is still too much.
I look at my two oldest children, and see the inequity in their possibilities and promise because one lacks access to good affordable health care. I remember that old saw "a stitch in time saves nine." If she were still a child I would have her at the doctor's office finding out what the problem is while it is still small and solvable . . . not waiting
Not waiting for, of all things, money
How immoral.
Our society has basically told her that she only has the "privilege" of feeling better if she can pay for it.
My third son is graduating from high school this year. His cousin works in London and he is looking at London colleges. If he does not choose a university here in Mass (and he is looking at other states), then I hope he chooses one in the UK.
Hopefully he can set up his life there, where your health and the care you receive is not subject to the amount in your wallet.
He will sleep a lot more peacefully, and so will his mother.
Addendum
I never thought I'd be looking outside my country for a better life or hoping my children move to another country for a better life. Without real, meaningful, universal health care reform with a public option, that time will be here shortly.
This isn't hyperbole, but it is despair of getting any real and meaningful reform.
No more bipartisan nonsense, they don't want it and WE CAN'T AFFORD IT. No more platitudes, smooth and slick packaging of garbage, or anymore time in the hands and control of insurance companies. If not now, we will never get it.
Consider this: The immigration quota from European countries hasn't been met in about a decade. One of the biggest reasons is over health care. They see our mess, hear about it and want no part of it. Many who do come here from countries with universal health care retain dual citizenship so they can take advantage of their country of origin health care in the event their health takes a turn.
Why should a health care migration out of this country be such a far fetched possibility? Think of the brain drain then.
As a mother, a person whose own health is questionable and who was exposed to a great deal of radiation in utero, who now worries every day not only what time bomb is waiting to go off, and how big will it be, this time, but also about any genetic damage that may have been passed to my kids (and maybe grandkids) the only responsible thing to do it point eastward (or northward) back to where their great grandparents came . . . if we do not get real, meaningful, universal health care reform with a public option
updated: because I forgot a paragraph