The plight of those without health insurance in this country should always be first on the minds of our lawmakers, especially when you consider that the woefully inadequate health insurance reform we managed to get doesn't come into effect for another 3 years. And that's assuming a teabagger Congress or president doesn't repeal it.
Described below the fold is the plight of my friend (we'll call him "Jay") who is seriously considering a road trip to Canada so he can get his shoulder fixed.
Jay started noticing a pain in his shoulder several years ago. He's physically active and loves activities like rappelling and rock climbing, so he attributed the pains to his hobby and continued on. He considered the ache in his shoulder to be a necessary casualty of his lifestyle, and he was fine with that.
I know Jay from school; he and I enrolled the same semester, although he decided he needed more time to find himself and what he wanted to do with his life before getting his degree, so he dropped out after three years and hit the road. Literally.
Over the next few months, Jay rode his bike to Las Cruces, New Mexico from Cincinnati, Ohio. He stays with family, works odd jobs to get by, and creates art whenever he gets the time. For a long time, the road was his muse. Sometimes it was the mountains of Northern Arizona, or the mesas of New Mexico. He told me the height of his life was attending the most recent Burning Man Festival (huge gathering of artists and art) in Nevada. He showed me pictures of him scaling a tower someone had constructed in the desert.
(Jay's the one in the Santa hat)
Needless to say, Jay just turned 23, and is in perfectly good health except for his right arm. While his shoulder continued to bother him, he figured it could wait until he got a job with health insurance before he went and got it taken care of. Today, Jay posted this status on his facebook page.
"i'm beginning to think i just need to stop waiting til i can get insurance and go get surgery for my shoulder. i just realized my whole arm has dropped 2"....anybody want to give me a ride to canada in the next few weeks? lol."
My friend's right arm has dropped 2" below his left arm. He's 23. In any other industrialized country on planet Earth, Jay could be seen quickly and get the treatment he needs without having to worry about a cent. But this is the United States; health care is a privilege only affordable to the insured. And if you aren't insured, you'd better be rich, or you're out of luck.
I know nyceve tirelessly stood outside of free health clinics and captured similar stories during the health care debate. However, I don't feel the debate should be left alone simply because the elite decided to throw us a few crumbs of legislation so we'd be quiet. We need to keep speaking out about the grave injustice of no health care faced by my friend and literally millions of others like him.
I don't know why I posted this diary other than to share Jay's story. There's not much that can be done for him, with the exception of becoming a Canadian citizen. I just wanted to shed some light on his plight and hope others take notice and continue the fight for single payer health care in this country.
Peace and blessings. The floor is yours.