So, Obamacare has finally passed. There are a lot of
people pissed off about it – are pissed and disgusted that their tax dollars
are supporting all these lazy, drug using sacks of shit who refuse to
work. These are some of the words I have read and heard straight from
people’s mouths recently. That naïve statement pisses me off, and I take personal
offense to it actually for a multitude of reasons.
Now, of course, everyone is welcome to their opinion.
The opposing sides don’t agree with each other, this is no surprise. I
think people’s opinion about a lot of these issues that have come up (most
recently being the abortion/women’s healthcare issue in Texas) are based a lot
upon one’s own personal experience, and I am no different.
Eleven years ago I suffered from a nasty ass eating
disorder. It got so bad that I went away to rehab for five months.
My parent’s health insurance initially didn’t cover it – by the time I got out,
my parents had spent tens of thousands of dollars on my treatment. Later
down the line, after many appeals, my parents were reimbursed for part of this
cost. Insurance companies now cover more mental illness treatment, but
they didn’t years ago. Part of Obamacare is the continued awareness and
coverage of the treatment of mental disorders. I was very lucky and
fortunate that my parents were able to fund my treatment – but if they hadn’t
been able to, and I was unable to get the help I needed, I am confident there
is a large chance I would have slowly starved myself to death.
I now had a pre-existing condition, a label I wore for
insurance companies when I was seeking coverage independently. While
going through countless interviews with numerous providers, I felt judged,
naked, vulnerable, and helpless after I got turned down time and time
again. After Obama took office for his first term, some of this reform
started to pass and part of it allowed me to stay covered under my parents’
policy until I reached a certain age. Phew! What a relief. I
had bought some time.
My last two years of college were tough – I worked 40+ hours
a week to support myself, and went to school full time in part to be eligible
for the health insurance Texas State offered to their students. Those
were the hardest two years of my life. During college, I worked as a bar
manager. I was one of the few in my service industry circle that had
health insurance – they couldn’t afford the high premiums on individual plans
they qualified for. These people were not lazy sacks of shit that some of
Obamacare’s opponents have alluded to. They worked hard. They paid
their bills. They went to school. They were responsible
citizens. When they got sick, they had to decide whether they could
afford an out-of-pocket doctor visit or not. It was a constant struggle
of my service industry friends around me, and I can guarantee you that the
passing of Obamacare is a huge weight off their shoulders.
After I graduated college, I was on my own in terms of
finding health insurance. I was too old for my parents to cover me.
I was hoping that enough time had passed that my eating disorder would no
longer be an issue, but I was dead wrong. After six months of tirelessly
searching, after working with an insurance agent to try and find the
needle-in-the-haystack policy, I got only one insurance company that agreed to
cover me and my monthly premium would be over $800 - $800!!! And
that is no joke, my friends. And the coverage I would've gotten was a joke. And as a new graduate who was still working
in restaurants, I could not even begin to think about affording that. So,
I was forced to go uncovered. I felt like I was walking on eggshells
wherever I went. I would have nightmares of me getting cancer or having
some sort of an accident and racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in
medical bills that I would never be able to pay. During this time, I
learned that one broken leg, brief treatment, and casting can cost $10k or more
out of pocket. One emergency room visit with stitches can cost several
thousand. What if I broke a bone, or worse? There were weeks that I
stuck out my sinus infections because I couldn’t afford to go to the doctor and
certainly couldn’t afford antibiotics out of pocket. When I got really
sick a couple times, my parents helped me pay for me to go get help. And
again, I was lucky. Some people don’t have the parents I do.
I left a job to take another that would offer me health insurance – I had to
take a significant pay cut, but it was my only option to get health insurance
coverage. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when that part of my life was
over – I was finally in a world of a $10 copay instead of a $100 doctor visit,
and $5 prescriptions instead of God knows what.
During my stint as a bakery manager out of college, I worked
with a remarkable woman. She had worked at that bakery for years.
She worked full time, as did her husband. They paid their bills on time,
rent on time, contributed to society, were wonderful spouses to each other, as
well as proud grandparents to their grandchildren. The jobs they worked
didn’t pay that well, and they each had a small pre-existing condition – both
had illnesses years ago that prevented them from getting insurance. A
couple years prior to me working there, she had a heart attack in the kitchen
at work. She nearly died and was in critical condition at the hospital
after surgery for quite some time. Because she was uninsured, and her
treatment so extensive, her medical bills totaled hundreds of thousands of
dollars – no shit. She and her husband will never be able to pay that off
in their lifetime, and their credit is forever fucked because of it.
My little brother is a very talented drummer. He is
amazing and the coolest guy I know – I adore him. He is one of the most
genuine people I have ever met, honest, true, kind, and one of the best
examples of hard work and dedication. But, he is a drummer – that is his
passion, his gift, his skill, and I have all the confidence in the world he
will one day see huge success. And this is no secret, it is hard as shit for
musicians to get health insurance coverage – they almost always have to get it
independently. Now lucky for my brother, he has a clean bill of health
and no pre-existing condition so he has been able to get coverage. But,
he doesn’t make a lot of money at his day job and current gigs, and the
premiums became quite the strain. And now through the passing of
Obamacare, and what he qualifies for, he will be able to comfortably pay for
health insurance.
Both my mother and sister are pediatric nurses. Time and time again over the years, they have seen countless children and families that do not have adequate health insurance coverage. These families are good people, hard-working, that are just trying to take care of their children. And a lot of these children, because they have a rough medical history, have pre-existing conditions that prevent them from being covered. These families will have medical bills to pay off for the rest of their lives. And now, through the passing of Obamacare, a lot of my mom's and sister's patients will have adequate health insurance coverage and their parents will no longer have to worry about where they are going to get the money to pay to possibly save their child's life.
I have other examples, and I could tirelessly go one, but I
won’t. My stance on Obamacare, as well as other things he does do for our
country, is based upon my own personal experience and what I have witnessed and
lived through during the course of my thirty years. And I get that our
tax dollars may climb a bit, and that my stellar policy through work may change
a bit in order to accommodate others, but you know what? I am happy as
hell to do it because I know that other individuals will be able to attain what
they deserve. i'm happy to give a little extra of what I have to help others. I would much rather support those in need (including some
that, yes, I think milk every federal dime they can) than deny the lot of them
that include so many that deserve it, including my past self.
At any rate, that’s my thing about Obamacare. I
normally try and keep my mouth shut in terms of politics, but I feel quite
strongly about this and it helps me to get it out. Below is an article I
read today that prompted this blog entry.
