In some ways, I'm a lucky woman, in that I have friends and family to turn to when I have a problem.In other ways, I'm both unlucky(I'm a wheelchair user, after all) and I've recently become part of a stealth health crisis. Follow me below the fold so I might explain.
I don't really think it will come down to true crowdsourcing in the end, of course, though it was more fun to think up names of sites(DentaGoGO. Donor Chews) than ponder my fear and tremendous sticker shock. Because my mouth is a work in progress, especially when you consider I'm thinking in terms of "less inaccessible than" than true access(Still enough that I might wear my current provider's name as a wheelchair sponsorship patch if I could get a discount. Sometimes, I can see myself: chair as covered in patches as a stock car, and although I'm joking , and imagining things, it bothers me that the thought isn't as horrifying as it probably should be.Or maybe I could send a bill to Americans For Prosperity or the Kochs, since they kept health reform from being better, and I sort of think of them having big rooms full of money, like Scrooge McDuck, though logic tells me otherwise. I bet if the right person handled the request, it might even get paid by accident, although retribution would be swift, I don't doubt.
Because my version of the ambition and dream-sapping safety net has not included dental coverage in many years, although simpler things are easier to pay with the discount plan I really have. One thing I've learned in my research, though, despitea clear connection between oral care and good health, including prevention of heart disease and osteoporosis, nobody I know seems to have a plan that covers this need sufficiently So people delay, their needs get more complicated, therefore more expensive, and potentially specialized. Then the person starts to feel crazy and desperate and starts to wonder who on Facebook might kick in five dollars, and who might be just as glad if she couldn't open her mouth again.
I don't know what the answer is, but it seems as though we could do better. Maybe I'll just form "Lickstarter" although that will set off everyone's porn filters anyway.
Editor's note: I changed the title of this diary, in case people felt I was actually asking for money onsite.