Several weeks ago, I visited my parents on the west coast. While there, enjoying the ambiance and sprinkles and public transport and assortment of seafood, I got a cold. It was a cold that woke me up several times a night to hack and cough. Two days of this, while driving back home after staying in a lovely seaside hotel, I and my mother decided enough was enough, so we stopped into a walk-in clinic.
There were no patients at the time, so I was seen quickly. I was diagnosed with bronchitis, giving prescriptions for antibiotics and cough medicine, and not charged a cent.
I went to a pharmacy, gave them my scripts, and my mother and I ate at a nearby restaurant while they filled it. Again, the entire procedure was simple, painless, and free.
I'm not entirely convinced the infection was bacterial, but the cough medicine with codeine finally allowed me to sleep and conserve my energy for fighting the infection, which made me well for the trip home.
My question is, why, in the wealthiest country in the world, it can't be as simple as my treatment was? I was sick, I got medicine for it, I got well. So easy and simplistic and far less costly in the long run. I even restarted my medication for bipolar disorder, and my main fear now is I'm working too many hours at my minimum wage job to get Medicaid next year.
Why should that be a fear? Why should any citizen in the Country Club of the USA worry about not getting help when they're ill due to monetary reasons? People aren't perfect. We get sick. We get injured. We have things happen to us that need fixed. Why isn't this part of our agenda?
I suppose I must be grateful that, for now, I have insurance, and can get the aid I need.