When I was five years old, I was in a coma for 3 weeks, in critical condition with failing kidneys. Two weeks before, I had a strep throat. It lingered, but my parents had no health insurance. They could afford only to trust my young immune system. By the time my throat felt better, an acute glomeral infection had set in, and my high fever lured me into never never land, so a trip to the hospital was required, money or no money.
I have never forgotten the conversation my mom and dad were having at the moment I woke up. My doctor was explaining to them that if I did fully recover, I would likely have several lifelong health problems; the most common being Rheumatic fever. I know my parents were, at that moment, unaware of my near wakefulness. They spoke candidly, unguarded, vulnerable as children themselves in the face of the fear that they would not be able to afford even one more illness from me, the last in a family of four children.
We were not really poor, just small town low income. But health insurance, even back then, was a luxury my family could not afford, because of the concerns private health insurance companies had over whether my congenital anomaly (I have ectrodactyly, a deformity involving my hands and feet) might create some 'unknown' costs for them if they allowed me to obtain coverage.
Under the new health insurance act, it still is not clear whether a kid deemed 'risky' like me would be 'redlined' from 'normal' insurance pools or somehow 'shoehorned ' into a cluster of shared risk private companies. I know; we have a lot left to learn about the details that will survive the final showdown of amendments in the Senate.
It's one thing to finally have the discrimination part of (precondition/pro life) addressed, but it's quite another to feel ANY confidence in ANY private health insurance company(ies) NOT using this to their advantage, to get their government bailout on those of us who are 'costly to cover' and low income. Without regulation on the limits to how much they will be able to charge for the privilege of insuring us high maintenance citizens, how can it be anything than just a different kind of taxpayer bailout?
Frankly. In my experience (having birthed two children with ectrodactyly myself) young adults with physical anomalies have no significantly higher doctor visitation rates than do conventionally equipped young adults but BOTH populations are about to become a carefully targeted group for the 'required coverage' that this bill stipulates...and that will be a heavy burden on Obama's shiny new digital voting bloc.
Like every other Progressive Democrat who still supports Obama, I am grateful that we have, at least, allowed Senator Ted Kennedy some peace in his grave, because a huge first step has been taken. But it is so much NOT the health care we wanted, we NEEDED, it is NOT single payer (Medicare For All) and it is worrisome to not have REAL regulation in place to stanch the flow of profit taking that will come from Big Insurance as long as they can get by with it.
I know for my parents, the notion that they would be forced to buy private health insurance for all four of their children and themselves has them rolling in their graves. It must seem Orwellian to them, and if they had been required by law to buy private health insurance coverage back then, every Progressive Democrat in Austin Minnesota (post apocalyptic/union busted headquarters of Hormel Meats) would have joined them in protest, by tossing their Spam in Turtle Creek, for beginners. I would have joined them, in my little kid hospital gown.