I'm getting nervous about this health insurance reform thing. Really nervous. My husband and I were counting on the public option or single payer plan happening. I'm healthy for my age (early 50s) but my husband has already had two heart attacks, a stent and a bypass, with a planned stent replacement in the near future and he's in his mid 50s. He's thin, eats healthy, exercises and takes his medications but has a strong family history of early heart disease with two immediate relatives dropping dead at about the age he is now, and, yes, he used to smoke.
Because of his history, he is obviously uninsurable on his own so he's working a crappy job for slave wages and no respect just so he can have medical insurance and then they fight us tooth and nail every time he has a test done. It's a huge company so the insurance is pretty good (after the fight that is) and we can afford the premiums. He's trying to stay healthy, see his doctor and get screenings so he doesn't run up another huge bill like he did with the bypass (or worse). You can imagine the mess we went through trying to get them to pay for that but, six months later, they finally did and we only had to pay a few thousand out of pocket. Monthly payments and three years later, it's paid off. But my point is, like many insured Americans, he's chained to a job he hates so he can have insurance. He'd love to go back to his old profession as a self-employed upholsterer in his own shop but there's that pesky heart problem.
Then I read about the blue dogs and stressed out. Now I hear about the town halls and the screaming and yelling and nobody can talk or ask questions or hear pros and cons either way about what may or may not happen and whether or not Obama is going to personally holds down granny for her lethal injection on her 80th birthday and her palm flower turns black (Logan's Run reference. Geez I'm old).
I realize I'm not addressing the uninsured or the under-insured, but I've already read lots of diaries and blog posts about people in that position and, believe me, I feel for them. Maybe I'm being selfish and should just be glad we have insurance under the circumstances (and I am) but still I'm thinking of the people who would love to go back into business (or start up a business) for themselves or just take that job at the used book store they love, but can't because they can't give up the insurance where they now work.
Anyway, when there was all this encouraging talk about public options for people not otherwise insurable, we got very excited. We were going to open up a little shop again and he could go back to doing what he loves to do, putting interiors in old cars and boats. We'd been shopping around for buildings, getting a feel for real estate, now that's it's so cheap, and planning to move to an area we've been eying for years far, far away from the sweat shop he's at now. But if the public option fails, hubby will be stuck at _______ (insert name of sweat shop of choice here) until laid off, and there are plenty of rumors about that, or qualifies for Medicare.
As for me, I type for a living, doing transcription. I'd always said my retirement plan consisted of me dropping dead at the keyboard. Am I being too negative? Am I abandoning all hope too early or is there still a chance the public option can become a reality during this administration? Please, talk me down.