and leave you wondering how to pay for continued care. We live in a country where having access to healthcare depends on your pocketbook. That is slowly changing thanks to the ACA but it really isn't enough.
I work for a living. Heck most of us do unless we happen to be lucky and retired or a trust fund kid who has led a pampered life but I don't expect many of them to haunt the pages of Daily Kos. My wife is working now after a 7 year long job search. Because of this I really know just how far my paycheck will stretch. We have been able to make it stretch way past the point where I was sure it would break. But now it has broken. There is no more stretch left and the bills keep mounting. There is only so much over time my broken down back will accept before rebelling with extreme pain and we have hit that point. Follow on down past the orange snow doodle and find out what brought us to that point.
We survived through lots of thin times including one three month stretch of zero income after I was let go by my former employer. We sold everything that wasn't nailed down and had value. Let me tell you that those $15.00 DVDs sure go down in value. If I got a buck a piece for them I was lucky. Our wonderful books were another disappointment. We sold all we could and didn't get much. They had brought so much joy to our lives but turns out that isn't worth much in the resell market. We made it through the thinnest times with help from the SNAP program. You would be real surprised at how much stuff you can do without. Even our food budget suffered in the cut backs and when I thought it was the worst it got even more thin. We didn't get much from SNAP but it kept us from starving.
Well we made it through the lean times and things were looking better.I had a new job making about as much as I did at my old job. My wife was still out of work but my income kicked us off SNAP. We made do. We played the revolving bill game. Who got paid was who was threatening to turn us off. Those bills that were not needed for day to day life got pushed to the side. This included my medical bills. These were from my fusion from L3 down and the continuing care I needed after that. I paid the doctors only when I had to make a new appointment. The only medical bill that was kept current was for pain management.
This was my lifeline. Because of pain management was able to continue to work. I still had a lot of pain but I could grit my teeth and put up with it. Paying for Cobra coverage didn't leave much for doctor bills but what was left I gave to pain management. I paid a little with every visit. Then it got a lot better. I went from being a temp to full time employment with insurance. Even choosing the best coverage and including my wife on the policy we saved over $400.00 a month.
Too bad that the best coverage still came with a $2400.00 deductible before kicking in the 90%. Drug costs didn't count towards that total though. That was another $1000.0 but at least we got a deep discount on the drugs. Once the $1000.00 for drug costs was met we got free drugs. This helped a lot after we met the $1000.00. Pain meds cost a lot and there isn't just one but a multitude and don't forget those drugs to lower blood pressure and the rest we need to get through life.
So we paid what we could and let slide those doctor bills we couldn't keep up with. Soon I was getting nasty letters from different doctors and a couple of hospitals. Everyone wanted a chunk of my check Heck if I made all of the suggested payments I would need another $600.00 a month just for them before I could start to pay my regular bills. I did what I could, I paid the least I could on some and let others slide. I quit answering the phone if I didn't recognize the number. I quickly learned what phone numbers were from collectors and labelled them so i wouldn't answer those calls by mistake. I kept paying pain management but even that was expensive. Sure we got the "Plan Discount" but that still left hundreds to pay. I kept paying so I could get the pain meds that made life livable and so we could work together to find something that might work and relieve some of the daily pain.
I had all kinds of shots. Epidurals, pain blockers and more. None worked except the ablation shot. That worked to relieve the pan on the sides of my spine and they lasted for about a year. It was great but I still had spine pain and huge bills. Even when the insurance kicked in the shots could be a couple hundred for each. We managed by paying a little at a time and yet bills kept mounting. I still owe the doctor from my fusion over 3 years ago. I just don't have the money to pay the $300.00+ bill. I owe close to a thousand to pain management just from the last 4 months for a series of shots that did nothing to relieve my pain. Too bad I have to pay even when they don't work. I tried to make that suggestion to the pain management doctor giving me the shots and he laughed and replied only in a dream world.
So here I am. I'm under fifty. I have no credit cards because medical debt has killed my credit. I have to do without so I can pay the doctors who have not done much to relieve my pain. I have debt out the ass from doctors and hospitals. Yet I am "lucky" because I have insurance. I have a good policy. It covers just about everything and once that deductible is met t pays out 90%, leaving me the 10% remainder and yet that 10% is huge. Every year I incur more medical debt than I can pay. I want to pay. Heck I believe my doctors deserve to get paid even though they haven't really been able to help much. I can't take a part time job to make more to pay them off quicker. I would love to but my back makes that impossible. By the time I am done with my 8 or 10 hours a day at my regular job I am truly beat. Constant pain drains you physically. So what is a hard working guy to do ? How can anyone really afford medical coverage if they have any kind of long term condition that requires a doctor's care ?
The answer is out there. We see it in different countries and yet certain segments of society fight against it tooth and nail. Yes universal care has some draw backs but if we put as much work into improving it as we do fighting against it we could fix them. Isn't it time that America joins the rest of the industrialized world in providing some form of universal care for all. Is it really fair that healthcare should only be affordable to the rich or those who only see a doctor a few times a year? Is it fair that someone who works hard can't pay his medical bills even when he has decent insurance ? Some would say yes ! They are the same ones who rant about takers and feel no one should get a dime from tax payers if they aren't billion dollar corporations.
It is time to take the next giant step and move beyond the ACA. It is time to say yes, healthcare is a right for all. It is time to say we value all Americans and want them to be healthy.