I remember when I was in school, a high school band from Canada came to play. During their stay here, we got the opportunity to learn about the differences between the United States and here. I remember one of the students had a myriad of health problems. He said he'd never live in the US because Canada gave him free medical care. Free??? Although young, I was already a champion for the underdog. I quickly learned that medical care was free in other countries. Yet, I also knew that here, in the US, my mother and father didn't go to the doctor when they were sick because they couldn't afford insurance and pay the rent, much less the expensive doctor bills.
Fast forward to 2002. I, a single mother of two children, decided to move myself and my children to Maine. I had visited the state when my oldest son was 4 years old and had gotten sick. The doctor said he could handle the trip and it might help him. I found a place I fell in love with, a place I wanted to raise my children. By the time I finally decided to move, I had a good job and, although I didn't make enough to move out of subsidized housing, I made enough to provide all our needs and even some of our wants. My health insurance benefits had just kicked in. I was young, healthy, and had a place to stay free in Maine until I found work. I knew I'd find work there. The job market was great there. I had a great reference from my employer and had proven beyond a shadow of a doubt with them that, as a single mom, I had more motivation and drive then those who could depend on their spouse's income.
Some of you know the story, I moved our personal effects to Maine and while planning to move our furniture back there, on a trip down, woke up unable to move my legs. Enter months of doctors, specialists, tests, home nurse care, and so on. Enter car repossession (insurance company argued that the flu was a pre-existing condition of my health disease and refused to pay the disability insurance that costed me a small fortune each month). I was able to get on Medicaid, but this greatly limited the doctors I could see and the treatments I could receive. I researched my newly diagnosed health issues trying to find something to get me healthy again, yet the doctors with the most promising treatments didn't accept Medicaid. I had to settle for what I could get. While bed-ridden, unable to bathe, feed or toilet myself I was only able to get 4 hours a day with a nurse. Four hours a day with a nurse. The rest of the time my two young children, one still a toddler and the other only a couple years older, cared for me and themselves.
A few years later I remarried. I came off my myriads of medications, designed to save me but actually making me sicker then ever, and eventually was able to walk again. I was determined to build up enough strength to just stay out of bed for the day and watch my children grow up. I lost my Medicaid because, although my new husband made very little money, it was over the $600 month limit to have Medicaid. I survived off of samples the doctors office gave me (the same samples they are no longer allowed to give without paying taxes on) and visiting free clinics. Free clinics where the doctors had no experience dealing with my specific health conditions, but could write prescriptions for pain medications or muscle relaxers (the very things I'd hoped to avoid). Life without health insurance sucked. Yet, we couldn't afford it. I had called but the premiums they quoted, based on my pre-existing conditions, was insane. It was more then all our monthly bills combined!!
And so, for many years, I lived without health insurance. I've kept up to date on my medical conditions, studying the latest developments, reading about the newest clinical trials, seeing the wonderful medications that work wonders for so many....but aren't marketed to treat that yet. Yet, I didn't have insurance. I couldn't get in. Maybe to the clinical trials.....but that required stays out of state. *sigh
After my divorce, I qualified for Medicaid again. Excited about the advances made in the medical care concerning my various health conditions, I wanted to jump into the new treatments. Many of the patients I had talked to who used them had wonderful results, even being able to return to work after years of being cared for! I wanted that. I wanted to work. As I started going to the doctor, I found out that, although there were many drugs to treat my various conditions, they had not been "approved" to treat my health conditions specifically. So, my Medicaid wouldn't pay for it. I was told that, more then likely, other health insurance would. Yet, I couldn't afford other insurance. So, I settled for what I could get. I faced the side effects and waited. I tried the different meds that were approved but, even when they helped one medical condition, another would worsen. I kept up on my research. I talked to hundreds of patients weekly who shared my health conditions. I found out what worked for them, only to be turned down by Medicaid because those same things weren't "approved" for my conditions.
Let me explain "approved". During the Vietnam war, soldiers were given a medication for malaria. The soldiers reported that this same medication (Plaquenil) helped relieve their rheumatic symptoms. Yet, it was 1998 before the medication was approved (by the FDA) to treat rheumatic symptoms. At this point in time, Medicaid would have then paid for it to treat rheumatic conditions.
For the first time since I got sick, I have the opportunity to have health insurance. My husband has a good insurance plan. The changes in health care over the past years means that, despite my pre-existing conditions, I can get coverage. His health insurance company isn't going to charge me a higher monthly premium to cover these conditions either (also due to health care reforms through recent years).
I've read tons of articles lately that explain that those who can afford health insurance will cover the costs for those who don't. Premiums will rise but all will be covered. No where will a parent have to choose between paying the rent, or having health insurance. No where will a parent not be able to get the medical care they need because they make over $600 a month, but not enough to afford health care. My husband, and others who can afford health care premiums will be footing the bill for all those that can't.
And I personally want to thank each and every one who chooses to pay their health insurance premium each month without grumbling and complaining..........knowing exactly how blessed they are. Not only has God blessed them financially to be able to pay health insurance premiums, God is now allowing a health reform to take place in America so that these same people who have been paying their premiums for years will now know that they are helping provide health insurance to so many in need.
Jesus said that we should treat one another as we want to be treated. How many times have you seen someone who didn't have the medicine they needed, or who was sick and needed to see the doctor but couldn't afford it?? How many times have you yearned to help them, only to find out the medicine they needed was more then your weekly paycheck?
For the first time since my getting sick, I'll have health insurance. Each week when I see how much comes out of our paycheck, I will be proud knowing that I'm helping all Americans have free health care. I'll know that somewhere out there is a mother who is reading about all the new medications that can help her once again become employed..............and my premiums helped her to get that medication.
I know the health reform plan isn't perfect. I know it'll take years to tweak it out and years to make sure everyone is covered. I've read the negatives and the positives of it. But all I can think about is the years I wasn't covered. The years I couldn't get the medical care I needed. The years my young children watched me writhe in pain and unable to get out bed and have to bring me food and help me toilet. If this plan was in effect years ago, my children wouldn't have had to endure seeing me so sick. They wouldn't have had the full burden of caring for me medically because there was no insurance to have a nurse come in.
My health insurance premiums will pay to keep other children from having to endure what my children did. That's enough for me.
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Please take a moment to read "Lessons of a $618,616 Death" by Amanda Bennett in the March 15, 2010 edition of Business Week Magazine. (Click on the title to be taken to the website with the article)
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