I’m sure I had health care as a kid in the 1960’s. My dad was a fireman so insurance was probably part of his employment package. I know I went to the hospital to get my tonsils out and got the few vaccines that were recommended then. I broke a few bones, as most of us did, climbing trees or trying to walk on the top of fences.
I don’t remember my parents talking about the high cost of health care, and I remember them talking about a lot of other things that were happening in the world at the time.
I moved out of my house when I was 15. I never thought or talked about health care either. I was young and invincible. What little health care I needed I got from Planned Parenthood and a free clinic near Michigan State University.
The free clinic was a bit iffy as they mostly focused on STD’s, so pretty much whatever you went in for, you got shots of penicillin in your backside. OMG, they hurt! Luckily they seemed to work for strep throat and sinus infections.
When I got married, I was covered under my husbands insurance. He was employed by a Canadian company so it was primo insurance, covered dental and eye, and was actually called “assurance”, not “insurance”. When I got divorced the company offered to continue to carry me if I paid. That was incredibly Canadian kind and generous of them.
I didn’t even ask how much it was, I just politely declined, I was still young and invincible, but now poor. During the last 5 years of my marriage my husband would beg me not to go to work, saying, “How much do you make a day, I’ll pay that”. Who could refuse? I like work but it’s not my favorite thing to do.
I then went for about 10 years with no insurance. When it was offered at jobs I had, but would be taken out of my paychecks, I declined. Still young and invincible, until I wasn’t.
I was in the hospital one year for 3 days while the docs tried to figure out what the pain I was having was from. They never did and I got tired of tests and checked myself out. A few days later I got a bill for $3,000. Ouch! That increased my pain. I made arrangements for payments and started looking for health insurance.
Most companies were charging $150 a month for self-employed individuals. Blue Cross Blue Shield seemed to have said $50 a month, so I had them send me info. I figured that had really said $150, but no, it was $50 a month and I signed up. It was 1989
BC/BS was great insurance then, covering anything with no fuss, for several years. They didn’t cover a lot of the type of health care I use; Traditional Chinese Medicine, homeopathy etc. But they covered chiropractic and were good in an emergency for broken bones.
Then they started raising their prices. With no advance notice I would read that I owed $99 the next month, then $129, until they jumped to $509. That was in November, the 11th month of a year that I hadn’t been to an allopathic doctor once, hadn’t used my insurance at all.
After a long talk with a friend of mine in the insurance business, I dropped my health insurance. I did ok too, I wasn’t young and invincible anymore but now I was old and stubborn. I was doing fine until I got cancer. With no insurance. Yikes!
It worked out fine though. I went to a clinic for the working poor here in Nashville and they hooked me up with all I needed. Everything just easily fell into place. I was put on TN CARE, a kind of Medicaid like insurance, Tennessee has for children, pregnant women, and at the time, woman with breast or cervical cancer.
I didn't think that was very fair for men with prostrate cancer, but I wasn’t going to turn it down! I had all my surgeries at Meharry Nashville General Hospital, the only hospital in town for poor people like me. Indigent. The city is trying to close that hospital. I wrote a petition to try to keep it open.
The state insurance lasted for 2 years and then I was on my own again. TN CARE now only covers children and pregnant women. I never qualified for insurance under the Affordable Care Act. I was too poor and was only eligible for state Medicaid through the ACA.
Except my state, ruled by a Republican legislature, refused to accept the billions from the federal government to provide healthcare for it’s citizens. Even our Republican governor wanted to accept, but nope. The Repubs weren’t having it. Why, is beyond me.
An insurance agent who is a friend of a friend, kept trying to find a good policy that I could afford. Two years ago I signed up with BC/BS. I paid $57 a month and a $100 deductible. The government paid $150. It was pretty good insurance. Then BC/BS pulled their self-employment insurance out of the state of TN.
Last year I was on a policy that was $800 a month, $100 deductible, and was fully paid for by the government. It didn't cover any of my doctors but, hey, I figured it would be good in case I broke something.
For 2018, they raised it t $1200 a month, with the government still paying $800 and my portion would be $400. A month. I’m embarrassed to say that $400 is more than I make in a week.
So, here I am again, uninsured. I’m still old and stubborn but am now quite vincible.
What can somebody, anybody, do to help? Seems to me, the most helpful thing anyone can do is to join me in overtaking the Republican control of the TN Legislature. It may seem undoable, but I’m telling you there is a blue wave, Dems winning all across the country in “undoable” districts.
Gayle Jordan is a Democrat running in a red district, TN 14th, for State Senate, and she would very much like for me to have health care. It may seem like she doesn’t have much of a chance, but Mary Alice Carfi recently ran in a Special Election, where she had even less of a chance, and with pretty much no help from the party, she lost by only 308 votes. 308 votes. That’s a win for Democrats in my book.
Please help me get health care by helping to elect Gayle Jordan to our state senate. The Special Election is March 13th, 10 days from now! There are still lots of things you can do to help. You could donate money, even if it’s only a dollar, though $1.40 would be cool since it’s the 14th district. Or, $14.90, hell $140, don’t let me hold you back.
There are also a lot of ways you can help that don’t cost a thing. You can contact Gayle’s campaign to find out how. Even from out of state you can phone bank and text voters. I like to email everyone on my email list and ask them to email everyone on theirs. Eventually you are going to hit some folks who live in TN, maybe even in Gayle’s district.
It's a small world. That’s why I’m asking for help. Don’t think of it as getting some stranger elected, think of it as getting me, Tracy Ann, Zen Trainer, one step closer to being insured. Thank you all!
Tennessee 2018 - Gayle Jordan