This is my story, inspired by nyceve's diary, of how health care coverage has shaped my life and the life of my spouse.
My wife and I met in Spring 2004, while I was working in the Detroit area. She was as a forms librarian at a company that created, revisioned, and maintained the myriad forms required for financial and government institutions. In late 2004, she was abruptly laid off. In what I guess they consider fairness, she was given two weeks to decide if she wanted to relocate her life to Minneapolis since they were consolidating, post-merger.
At the time, her oldest child was a senior in high school and a move was out of the question (for that and other reasons). The following Spring, at a wedding reception, her pre-teen nephew leapt up on her from behind on the dance floor and accidentally knocked her down. The fall she took exacerbated lumbar problems to the point where surgery was imminent if she was to find any relief.
At this point she had joined me in Texas and we were living together with plans to marry - one day. One day when we could plan it and have relatives attend and make it a nice celebration. This didn't happen. But we're not weeping. We play the cards we're dealt.
Her back problem forced her to quit her job as a private duty caregiver, which provided no benefits - she was a 1099 employee. She could no longer manipulate/turn/twist her elderly patient, a woman of 80 recovering from a stroke. After paying out of pocket for x-rays and prelim visits (to the tune of hundreds), it was decided that she needed a procedure called an inter-body fusion (for L3-5 I think) to replace crushed disks.
The surgery and costs would be over $240,000. The current health care system would have left her whacky on morphine forever since the surgery was not "required" and she had no health insurance. She has vague recollections of about 5 months of her life where she sat around in a narcotic haze, from April-September. Thank God I have empolyer-based coverage that is good, based on other accounts and horror stories I hear, and she was immediately eligible once we married. The only sensible thing to do was to marry, which we did at the local JOP.
We're still paying hundreds in residual uncovered expenses (parital pay for an $1,800 brace, etc.), but we're certainly in a better position than had she not had the surgery. I consider us extremely fortunate. We are happy in our marriage and have no regrets. She is recovering nicely, is in a new career she's always wanted to be a part of, back in school seeking certifications and living life again.
But I have to admit it's a huge step. I'm sure we're not alone in our decision. Citizens of the 'richest country in the world' just should not face decisions like this one. The irony is that this surgery has literally put her back on her feet and back in the workforce. How many stories far more horrifying with no positive outcome must there be?
I hear what you are all saying in your diaries regarding the state of health care in this country and I can relate to the fear and despair. I'm a pink-slip-in-a-shitty-economy away from the same fate. Something must change.