The real terrorists this country needs to fear are the health insurance industry and the health care industry. Each day 45 million Americans live in fear and take huge risks because of them. This is just one story.
I'm new here, but my search didn't turn up anything personal on this issue, so forgive me please if I repeat something already posted.
I realize this will sound like a whine, and maybe it is, but I can whine to anyone anywhere. This is a personal illustration of the daily fear many (too many) Americans live with. Taste it. Try to feel it. It sucks.
I want to talk about a political/economic issue as it affects some 45 million Americans: Lack of health insurance. And I want to tell you what it means personally, because all the talk and all the candidate references to individual cases don't really bring home the fear.
I lost my medical insurance a year and a half ago because I simply couldn't afford it anymore. I'm self-employed, so I didn't get the advantage of a group discount. There I was, with premiums amounting to over $11,000 per year, with a deductible of $9000. I had no drug coverage, either. My decision to drop the insurance involved a drop in income thanks to the growing recession. (Those of us out here who directly depend on what others spend felt this economic kick coming long before the media started talking about it.)
So I dropped the insurance. Considering that my previous policy had left me with over $20,000 in bills after an emergency surgery (I almost died), by disallowing everything but the kitchen sink, I couldn't even trust that I'd have much coverage in a disaster. Did I want to be without insurance? Heck no. The very thought gave me chills. I agonized for months.
So here I am today, getting virtually no health care at all. I'm diabetic and I have multiple sclerosis. And I'm scared to death.
I no longer get mammograms. I won't bother with a colonoscopy. Why? Because if I have cancer there's no place in this country that will treat me. Early detection won't save my life. Nothing will save my life.
I can't afford all of the $4000/year in medicines I need, either. So I take one diabetes medication but not another, all the while aware that my toes are starting to lose sensation, and when my MS keeps me from walking, the deterioration speeds up. I can only wonder about my kidneys.
And I'm scared.
I've filled out a Do Not Resuscitate order. My family naturally got upset, but I asked them, "How are you going to pay for it if I have a heart attack and some EMS team carts me off to a hospital, and we have to pay for whatever emergency treatment I get? You guys need the roof, the food, etc. more than I will."
I'm scared.
I also feel abandoned. The "wealthiest" country on earth would rather I didn't receive any medical care at all, because I own a house I could sell to pay for it. Problem is, I have kids to think about. Am I going to sell their home and put them in a bad neighborhood to pay for my survival? I don't think so. The home is all they and my spouse have to carry on with. I'm just a removable piece of the puzzle, but not the keystone.
Now, if my child gets sick, the house gets sold. For my kids I would sell everything and live under a bridge. But not for me. I'm 57 and I've had a life. They deserve one themselves, the best that I can give them.
So often when something goes wrong that I know I should see a doctor for, I skip it. And I wonder now whether I have only two or three years before the major illness hits that will take me because I can't afford treatment. Having been at death's door once, I know it can happen.
So, America, what is it like to lack insurance? It's okay if you're 20 or 30. But later on...it gets scary.
Sometimes I get angry. An immigrant I know (legal) can fly home to Brazil to get free health care, even though she's on the path to citizenhip here. She has a spina bifida, and needs frequent treatment. She can't get it here, but she can get it there for the price of the plane ticket.
What is wrong with this picture? Why do I feel as if I and my family are being held hostage in this middle place where I can still make enough from working not to be on Medicaid, can still be self-supporting and tax-paying... but the vultures hover around, ready to take my family's home if one of us get sick?
Yeah, I'm whining. But I'm not the only one. Millions of us out here are making these decisions every day, and wondering when the terrorists of the health insurance industry and a screwed up government will cost us our lives and our futures.
But it gets ironic. My parents are on Medicare, of course. Which I help pay for through taxes. They get top of the line treatment for everything. The health care industry takes care of every little blip for them. Yet they feel National Health Care would be a mess. They somehow think the government would screw that up... even though they love Medicare. Dialysis and open heart surgery, and back surgery, and even getting toenails clipped are covered. They complain about the cost of medication...but they can afford it. While I haven't filled my prescriptions in several months.
I'm glad they have such great care, but I resent them feeling that I'm not entitled to same thing. How many out there feel the same way, or just never think about it? I can only guess it must be most people, or we'd have long since had National Health Care.
So think about it folks. How many people in your neighborhood are living with the same fear, and sometimes desperation? Look at your family and think about how you'd feel walking in these shoes I've just described.
Then ask yourself if this isn't a moral outrage that should shame this country.