On Tuesday at the press conference announcing the inclusion in the House health care reform bill of the provision allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance until the age of 27, a young woman from Brooklyn who we have gotten to know shared her story. Her powerful testimonial highlighted the need for this critical measure. Here is her full statement:
I got involved with this health care work when Rock the Vote asked young Americans to share their stories of how not having health insurance has affected their lives. It was being said that young people were apathetic about health care and just didn’t need it. I decided to share my story in an attempt to debunk this myth.When I was 22, one month before graduating college I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Luckily I was still a student at the time and my surgery and therapy were covered by my father’s insurance plan. However, three months after I graduated I was kicked off the insurance and not offered COBRA. I started to apply for many different kinds of insurance and was denied every time due to pre-existing conditions. I was able to get by with going to the local clinic and getting the bloodwork needed to monitor my hormone levels but wasn’t and still have not over 5 years later had the tests needed for cancer survivors.
At age 23 and without insurance, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. Insurers definitely turned me away after that was added to my bill of health. During my second flare up of Crohn’s Disease I had to move back home with my father because I could no longer work or take care of myself. This was because I had waited too long to start the medication needed to control the flare up. There was no generic brand of the steroid I was prescribed and one bottle that lasted a little over 2 weeks cost around $250 for self pay individuals like myself. All of this could have been prevented if I had had prescriptions covered and the proper care needed for such a degenerative disease.
It has been over 5 years since my cancer diagnosis and I was finally accepted to health insurance this May. I was so excited to finally have the specialists and all the tests needed for my conditions. I was scheduled about a month ago for a colonoscopy and a whole body scan and 3 days before the first scheduled procedure, I got a call from my doctor saying I had no hospital benefits and had to cancel both appointments.
I too was a healthy person once and within a year after graduating I went from being that healthy person to being a cancer survivor living with Crohn’s disease without insurance all by the age of 23. I am 28 now and still battling with health insurance. I am still fighting to get the tests needed to monitor my health over 5 years later. If I had been able to stay on my parents’ insurance until I was 26 at the time of my diagnosis I could have received the care I needed and know without a doubt that I am cancer free. It’s very important that other young adults don’t have to suffer the same way I did which is why the current House that includes the opportunity for young people to stay on their parents insurance through 26 years of age is incredibly important.
I want to thank Speaker Pelosi for giving me this opportunity today and again to Rock the Vote. They have played the most important role in enabling me to speak about my health issues.
weren’t you able to get medicaid or ssi? didn’t anyone direct you to a social worker to discuss assistance?
it’s really sad if you missed out on the help available. i was in a bad way after losing my job but got medicaid in 8 weeks and food stamps in 4.
i feel very sad for you because if the help was available if you had just asked for it you may have gotten it. medicaid is very fair and the social workers very helpful.
I did apply for medicaid. I had a case worker that was trying to help me get on it for about three weeks. This was however, when I was able to work again and I made too much money to be eligible and was denied. I even had a note from my doctor saying that it was urgent that I start medicaid. In NY you have to make less than around $200 a week. I also applied to healthy new york which is a very good insurance that covers most things but again it had the same limitations and I was denied.
I am so sorry to hear about your story. I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at the age of 22. My cancer had spread to my lymph nodes by the time they found it, essentially giving me a death sentence. Through a miracle I’m alive at 28 today. Luckily, I did have insurance and continue to have it through an employer but I am so scared to leave. Leaving my insurance would essentially make me uninsurable…and because I had tall cell carcinoma it is the type with some of the highest rates of recurrence. I am a single mother of four children and I have to be alive to see them through life.
I can tell you that medicaid is not as “fair” as it seems. My insurance failed to pay for about $250,000 worth of treatment and it all fell to me. I made $3.98 too much according to their guidelines leaving me no other choice than to bankrupt. On top of the million questions in my head as to why me and watching my then two children beg me not to die; I can say losing everything I had was icing on the cake. I understand all too well that one illness, even insured, can mean a financial disaster.
I also do not understand these people that fight this reform so hard. Have we become so desensitized that we can watch our neighbor die or agnoize and not feel that we need to do something?
I am so sorry about your situations, ladies. My daughter Lisa has a similar one. In her case, my employer’s insurance did keep her on the policy to age 26, but as she was diagnosed with Crohn’s at 22 and Systemic Lupus by age 25, she was unable to get medical insurance to cover her diagnostic tests and treatments for either, life-threatening, debilitating, potentially deadly disease.
She has since had flares of both and has had care during a recent flare and kidney infection only through the charity of a doctor who wrote off the expenses of her tests. Of course, there will be a hospital charge for her recent visit to the E.R. My husband and I did go bankrupt, sometime after her first 12 hospitalizations, four surgeries, and thousands in expenses that are not covered and not included in the maximum out-of-pocket limitations.
Medicaid denied her. It is NOT automatic that people with deadly chronic diseases and inadequate income are covered.
We don’t know how we’ll keep her alive.
People say, “Trust God.”
Yeah… That’s fine. We do. But… sometimes God wants us to persuade our legislators, friends, and relatives that sick people deserve help. It’s not their fault they got sick. And they didn’t ask to be a “burden” to the taxpayers. They ARE taxpayers, usually. But they are unfortunate enough, through no fault of their own, to be ill. It can happen to anyone, and undoubtedly WILL happen to many of the TEA PARTY-ing protestors who think sick people don’t deserve help.
I PRAY it happens to the tea-partiers– that they get too sick to do what they do for a living, and lose their insurance, and go bankrupt and have no way to pay for treatment. That sounds harsh, I know, but they don’t know what it’s like to suffer and be in pain and fear that you’re going to die… and have no recourse… and be scorned and browbeaten and called a deadbeat and a freeloader for seeking assistance… which is denied. Maybe then they will understand what you and my daughter and others are facing. And then they’ll urge the legislators to vote for fair, affordable, accessible health care for all– not just for the healthy and the wealthy.
As a recent college graduate who was inevitably dropped from my father’s healthcare plan, all I can do is hope that my fortune holds on until I am able to secure a full time position with benefits (and as a current substitute teacher, that means waiting until next school year begins). In the meantime, no doctor, no dentist… let’s just hope that I do not need either in the case of an emergency in the next year, or there goes even more debt stacked next to my college loans.
Thank you for speaking up. While this is not the public option many hope for, this is a step in the right direction, which is making sure people are protected.
Susan, that’s terrible. Lupus is a terrible disease. My mother suffers from it and she has ever since I could remember.
I think these people that protest healthcare are heartless. When did they decide they were so priviledged to get to decide who should live and die and what lives are worth saving?
To the people that tell me to trust God. I do…but do they? Next time they tell you that, take your bible out and read them Matthew 25:31-46. They probably need a refresher. Remember…people try to take only the pieces of that suiting to them at the moment. By no means am I implying that it takes religion to know mercy. But had they been paying attention at all they would have understood that message long ago. They would understand that what is happening right now is long overdue.
okay… i’m not against social medicine… but do you really trust the thieves in office to run this???? Come on…. do you think social medicine is that great? I lived in Europe for 12 years and not only was it VERY expensive, service is limited! If you need an operation… you have to queue up until there is availabilities… and if its life threatening… you may die waiting.
Not saying that social medicine wouldn’t be ideal… i just don’t trust the thiefs in office forcing us to take it. And being fine if we don’t opt is unconsititional. If we had less tax taken out of our wages… we could each afford the best health care!!!!
I finally have private health care after living back in the states for 3 years through my employer. Its brilliant.. but maybe some of the resposiblility of the cost of health care should go to the doctors who charge the insurance company silly prices. I had a mole removed and they charged my insurance 1,500 dollars. It took them 10 minutes!! Maybe they need to be regulated!!!! Of course insurance will have to charge us co-pays if the doctors are ripping them off!
Or maybe they should give big tax breaks to ALL companys (minimum wage employers as well) to give medical benefits to their staff.
There are so many solutions to the problem of health care is this country its silly! But putting this country further into dept will not solve anything but further devalue our currency and making us all poor.
NO TO GOVERNMENT MEDICINE!!!!
I agree with Jennifer. In other countries with “universal healthcare” people die waiting for treatment – not just surgery, but to even see a doctor because you have to wait in line. Rather than having universal healthcare, we need to TRULY reform the system – not create a new one.
The problem everyone seems to have is that health insurance companies won’t insure them. I know, because I have the same problem. I am uninsurable because of a pre-existing condition (a condition which I haven’t been treated for in almost a year but still can’t get insurance). The reason why insurance companies won’t change it is because the legislatures took it upon themselves to specifically put wording in an act that allows companies to deny us coverage. I’d be willing to pay more than standard for health insurance, but I can’t even get coverage at this point. However, I would rather be without coverage now, then forced into a universal healthcare where my pre-existing condition makes my life not worth saving, and where my employer is taxed because I’m forced to use government healthcare. It’s not fair to me or to my employer.
In order to help people in need, the government just needs to lift the discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions, and work on tort reform.
A few comments on here are obviously from the mouths of “dittoheads”. They speak not from experience or research, but from what they hear other people say. Krisja, I’m so sorry for all your troubles but rest assured, many of us are out here that completely agree and understand. I too am a divorced mom who has solely supported two children. We’ve literally lost everything and sold everything we own to survive! If you think medical expenses aren’t the major portion of this, think again. I have been critically ill three times since divorcing, my children have been in accidents, etc. If I am paying enormous rates per month, I EXPECT BETTER. My daughter was recently refused service because I couldn’t afford the remaining $500 towards our “bridge”/deductible. I did offer $100, but that wasn’t good enough. THEY REFUSED TO SEE HER. I don’t care if the country goes “into more debt” over this; what better cause? My son is college age now and I am worried sick over this subject. How in the world is he to afford this at the start of his life?
I completely understand where you ladies are coming from. I was diagnosed with end stage renal failure three days before I was to return to college to start my senior year of undergraduate. I had to drop my classes and re-register as an online student. Dialysis prevented me from doing anything. I have since recieved a kidney transplant and everything is going well. However, I am a full-time graduate student. I am getting my Masters in Social Work. I currently have no health insurnace and no one will pick me up because of my “pre-exisisting condition.” That means the anti-rejection medication I am on, which costs over 2,000 a month w/o insurance, will come directly out of my pocket. I am terrified that I will no longer be able to afford my meds and will eventually have kidney failure, then ultimately back on dialysis. It is a scary situation to be in considering that I do not know what will happen. We DO need reform and to TOTALLY trust the Obama administration to get it done. Keep the faith ladies. It will happen. As a social worker, I am fighting and advocating for this bill…and I hope that everyone will come together to stand up for what is morally right. Now is the time.
Jennifer, are you listening to these stories? Actually listening?
Under our current system, there IS no queuing up for an operation… there simply IS NO OPERATION because you are not approved.
Do you see the difference?
While socialized medicine is not perfect, it is a much better solution than what we have now, and will save thousands upon thousands of people and their families while we search for an even better solution.
Our current health care situation isn’t Health Care… it is a Health Insurance Gamble. Literally placing bets on whether or not you will get sick while Insured. If you do… you’re a winner! If you get sick during a period of being Uninsured, unfortunately, you’re a loser.
For-profit companies have no incentive to help those who cannot afford to pay… and so those people will suffer.
The only civilized solution, the only Christian solution, the only compassionate solution in keeping with the ideals of all great Faiths is to care for ALL of those in need, and to spread that burden across all our shared shoulders.
The money I would save on a tax break would not pay to reset one broken leg, much less cancer.
But the combined, very small, amount we ALL contribute can pay for nearly every health circumstance of all our people.
There is no compassionate argument against this.
I too have a pre-existing condition. I have had epilepsy my whole life. However, I pay a lot out of my pocket every month for private health insurance just to guarantee that I will have coverage in the case of my seizures needing attention. My husband and I by no means can afford for me to have a private policy, but we can’t take the risk of not having it either. Stuck between a rock and hard place is where health care facilities and health insurance companies leave us. I am a 27 yr. old female American AND I work for an insurance company. I see case-by-case the ramifications of the costs and pre-existing conditions. But on the flip side, I see the crazy prices people are charged every day for simple things! Should the hospitals be able to add on with state-of-the-art equipment when they just charged me $14,000 to have my gallbladder removed!?
It doesn’t stop with the health insurance…I now am fighting just to have life insurance. I am being told that my condition puts me at risk for an accident and my life insurance will cost 3x what I thought it would! Ridiculous! I just want to help my family in the case that something would happen to me!
I am opposed to gov’t run health insurance. I have family in Europe that would tell you horror stories about having to wait for care until the gov’t approves it! That is nonsense!
START WITH THE DOCTORS, HOSPITALS, CLINICS, ECT, ECT THAT ARE CHARGING OUTRAGEOUS PRICES FOR PROCEDURES!! Start regulating what insurance companies have to pay in the first place by regulating what these health care facilities can charge. Is it necessary for a hospital to charge $7 for a Tylenol? Or $12 for 4×4 square of guaze? Really?! Why do these place get to rip off people needing the services!?
Yes, there are people in my country(UK) who may die waiting for treatment, but they don’t die because they have NO treatment or any way of getting it.
Those who are the sickest get treated the quickest, unlike your country where it seems that only those who can pay get the treatment regardless of how trivial. And you think that’s fair? What happened to compassion? what happened to caring about your fellow citizens? I’m happy to wait for a minor operation if it means someone else will get the treatment they need to live.
Personally, from what I see and hear, I think the americans are generally selfish and self-centred and I’m sorry if that tars you all with the same brush, but if you want the rest of us to change our minds, those of you who are compassionate and caring need to rock the boat a lot more and to make a lot more noise to get yourselves heard.
The ideas before our Senate and House do not include universal healthcare, they imply universal health insurance coverage. For those who cannot get onto health insurance plans (pre-existing condition, ect) or afford coverage (like those who work minimum wage jobs or someone like me who lost their job and won’t be able to afford the COBRA premium after the federally-mandated subsidy ends), you will be in a big group that can help negotiate the costs to a reasonable amount instead of buying it on your own. Think of it as your employer – the employer gets a break on the cost of health insurance BECAUSE there are many folks vying for the same insurance package. So, if you have many individuals who don’t have insurance but want it, they can all group together and the insurance companies can offer a group discount.
One way to cut costs would be to regulate the amount that actuarians make. These employees of insurance companies dictate how much of a premium you will pay based on complex mathematical computations, work about 2-4 days a week and sometimes make 7 digit figures! Where else besides professional sports or Hollywood can you make that kind of money for that kind of work? Also, make health companies public – there is NO reason why companies that keep people healthy should let others make a profit because they deny expensive clients. All you have to do is take away their stocks and have them run like any other company, just without all the denials.
I learned as a child the phrase “These expenses are above and beyond the amount we can cover.” My mom got poisoned by her dentists for decades before we realized she had overabundances of mercury and copper in her system thanks to shoddy crowns and fillings. By the time we realized what was wrong with her health, even after allergy testing to heavy metals, it was beyond the statute of limitations to sue the dentist for using materials to which she was allergic. She was the only person in the clinic taking chelation therapy for whom insurance covered and the only one with a normal sinus heart rhythm.
My heart goes out to all the folks on here with their stories of heartache and loss. In one of the wealthiest countries in the world, there shouldn’t be a reason why we can’t go to the doctor to have that cough investigated or a few simple tests to confirm cancer remission. Perhaps it is time for a Jubilee Year!
I am so sorry to hear your sad stories, everyone who has posted before me. It’s a shame that the way people with pre-existing conditions is not only perfectly legal in the United States, but treated as perfectly acceptable by society. In my opinion, it’s a huge disrespect to all of us, insured or uninsured, the way health insurance companies treats people like a paycheck.
I’ve been researching the health care debate since I was fifteen years old. I am twenty now. I too was born with a pre-existing condition, and my parents are self-employed, so health insurance was always out of the question for me. Since I’ve never had health insurance, when I was born, the doctors refused to conduct the tests needed to find out exactly what my condition was. I was initially given no preventitive care, because they couldn’t afford to pay. There was no company we could find that would cover me, and even if we had, the cost would have been far too astronomical for my middle-class parents to pay. As Mominamerica did, my parents offered them partial amounts as well as begging for a payment plan, but they wouldn’t hear it. Finally, luckily, they went to a specialized children’s hospital who agreed to give me partial treatment and testing on a payment plan. For years I was in and out of hospitals, and until I turned six was on daily antibiotics. After that, the hospital said that since we could not afford corrective surgery (which had a high success rate only in younger children) that the only thing left to do was take me off of antibiotics and hope for the best. The doctors said that if I lived past ten, it was probably something I could live with and have a semi-regular life. I did not go to the doctor for check-ups, or at all, unless something went tragically wrong. Around the time I was eighteen, my health took a slump again, and I started paying out of pocket for treatment, because of my condition my doctor warned me it was something I couldn’t just ignore. My parents would have liked to help me, but obviously could not afford to anymore. As someone who made minimum wage and was working two jobs, I still could not afford the treatment I needed. I often accepted only what was absolutely necessary, and I have not been to the specialists recommended to me since I was six.
The cost of all of my treatment as a child was, back then, a total of over a hundred thousand dollars, something my parents are still struggling with. Collection agencies call regularly, and while they are paying it off as best they can, there is only so much they have been able to do.
I feel ridiculous feeling sorry for myself with my condition, which is much less life-threatening than something like cancer, and I am deeply sorry for your situations. My thoughts are with you, and I truly hope you get the care you deserve.
The point I’m trying to make is that none of us should have been denied. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” seems to have been forgotten in the midst of some practices of capitalism. The right to life is inalienable.
And to those who say socialized medicine is wrong, I’m not saying you are completely off, but think of it from the point of view of someone whose never been given the privilege of not having to worry about care. To many of us who have nver been approved for coverage, the only way we can really go is up. I’m not saying socialized medicine is perfect either, but let’s just say that if I had the opportunity to even get on a waiting list for care, I would have gladly taken it. It’s a better mindset than knowing it will absolutely never happen at all.
Krisja, how do you expect people to stay on their parents insurance plans until they reach the age of 26 once the health care reform is enacted and eventually drives the private health insurance sector out of business. Take a basic economics class in order to fully understand the implications of this proposed bill before supporting such a cause. I’m sorry your health is deteriorating faster than the Jew population during the Holocaust but that’s not my problem. Assuming the bill passes, the public ‘option’ will inevitably become the only option. Contemplate the quality of the health care you would receive then.
“I’m sorry your health is deteriorating faster than the Jew population during the Holocaust but that’s not my problem.”
That’s definitely the attitude that’s going to get people to agree with you… note my sarcasm. Sorry, I’m just surprised something that offensive made it on here. Oh well, have a nice day.
You know Krisja, I’ve lived in a country that has national health care for a while, visiting relatives and I’ve seen the problems with national health care for myself, here’s MY story: My Aunt had been taking medication and treatments to prevent her from having children for a while. Her stomach was getting bigger as the months passed and each time she went to the doctors (which she had to wait in line for for weeks at a time), they told her that it was just from the medication and treatments and it would pass eventually. Did I mention that she smoked for this whole time? One day she had become very worried and demanded the doctors give her a check-up. After waiting for about a month do you know what these state paid doctors found out? She was actually six months pregnant and the doctors just said whoops. Shocking! Do you think a slip up like that would occur so easily in a country where people come to escape their own national health care?
I think you, these other national health care promoters and this extremely statist website should find out the truth about national health care before it’s the only side of the issue that you try to promote and shove in everybody’s faces’.
Dear Krisja,
Your story seems to have little to do with a need for insurance now. Yes, had you been on some plan when you became ill you’d have received the treatment necessary to keep you in better health. Perhaps if certain state mandates for what must be covered by plans were not in place some insurance company would be willing to insure you for a plan that covers catastrophic illness. Or if the liberals that plead with the government for action had started their own non-profit insurance organizations to help those with existing conditions deemed uninsureable, maybe all this could have been avoided.
Your issue now isn’t that you don’t have insurance, because it doesn’t make sense that you would be insured for something you currently have. That’s like getting fire insurance while your home is burning. Your problem is more with health care, and being able to afford it without the need for insurance. I don’t like having to subsidize anyone, but I’d rather have the government help pay for your treatment than for the care of non-citizens that have invaded our country. Medical care is expensive … because so many of us rely on insurance companies to pay the high costs and negotiate deals for savings. Individuals can’t do this, and we’re then forced to pay in full. There isn’t a free market in the medical industry because the consumer has little power to effect prices. We often don’t know what the cost of treatment even is, it’s all handled behind the scenes. If we were making decisions about treatment based on cost (which is why high-deductible plans force people to be more involved with the process), the medical market would have to adjust to what is affordable for the consumer.
I’d be happy to donate to a fund to help pay for tests/treatment if it were made available. That’s the America way: willfully helping others in need.
- Malone
“Krisja, how do you expect people to stay on their parents insurance plans until they reach the age of 26 once the health care reform is enacted and eventually drives the private health insurance sector out of business”
Might I suggest you take a basic law class? Connecticut currently provides for this. As well as one other state that isn’t coming to mind. As for the insurance business going out of business…as you would say, that’s not my problem. There is no set dollar amount that a persons life is worth. Much less a law abiding one that is contributing something to society.
“Take a basic economics class in order to fully understand the implications of this proposed bill before supporting such a cause”
Might I suggest a refresher for you? You do realize that your prices for healthcare at this point are adjusted to reflect covering those that are uninsured. Also let me point you to something called cause and effect. The outrageous prices that people are bankrupting because of are not only affecting the healthcare industry…but when they bankrupt, they bankrupt on EVERYTHING. What kind of effect do you think that is having on other industries and your precious economy???!!!
“I’m sorry your health is deteriorating faster than the Jew population during the Holocaust but that’s not my problem”
Unfortunately, this is your problem. It’s your economy that is going south, it’s your job that will disappear, and as my grandfather used to say…don’t spit upwards because it might land on your face. The health you enjoy today is not guaranteed. The luxury of the insurance you enjoy today might not be there.
“Assuming the bill passes, the public ‘option’ will inevitably become the only option. Contemplate the quality of the health care you would receive then.”
I’m sorry but you are mistaken AGAIN. Perhaps you should have done a little more research yourself. The public option is not the only option in countries with public healthcare systems. And I can say that these people enjoy the HOPE of one day being able to receive treatment…rather than the option of NOTHING.
Universal health-care allows everyone to live peacefully knowing that they are covered whenever they are injured or sick. This provides insurance to everyone who is denied insurance. People who are sick can finally get the medication that they need. At least they have a chance. To deny these people insurance is to take away their lives. I have health insurance (since I’m only 20, full time students still have health insurance… lucky me) but just because I have it doesn’t mean that everyone else shouldn’t have the same benefits that I have.
I am actually rather infuriated with cmshirah’s comment. It rather infuriates me knowing that people like this guy actually exist.
cmshirah complains about the quality of health care you would receive should the bill pass because OBVIOUSLY America’s hospitals does not have standards. Should you receive treatment that is less than what is necessary, well… that is what the law system is for. You care about the economy thinking that it is unable to provide health-care but can you care explain to me why are we in a war that we cannot afford? Why is it that America demands to stand a head above everyone else when we know that we are unable to do that. With all the money we have borrowed from China, we could have bought BMW 328i 2010 for 25% of the households in the United States. You think its not your problem should your health be deteriorating faster than the Jewish (Learn English. Jew is a noun.) population? You’ve never lived a day in your life fearing that you may not have health insurance. All you have done is deny the fact that America has a problem with health-care. To live is what people want. No one should ever be denied their right to live.
For Ed. National health-care is for people who are sick and is dying. Pregnancy is a birth control issue. It is not life-threatening unless she can actually die giving birth to a child. She would be placed furthest back in the queue as she is neither sick or dying. For that matter, however, she shouldn’t have relied on government money to check up on birth control but instead, probably go to a private clinic.
But anyways… Krisja. Truly wish the best of luck to you. No one should be able to deny you health insurance. I hope everything will come smoothly for you. Don’t give up!
I totally sympathize with you. I too am 23 years old and have Crohn’s disease. I have no health insurance and am a struggling graduate student. I have tried everything to get my medical bills paid for but no one wants to help. I have reached out to Medicaid and SSI and they all tell me my disease isn’t dibalitating nor am I over the age of 65. I can’t even get food stamps because they demand I find a better paying job within 60 days. Also, within the last year my parent’s divorced and went bankrupt. I have felt this recession hit home like I never imagined possible. But, I am hoping that with a Master’s degree I can join some group that will have benefits that help me in some way. Thank you for standing up for those of us who are struggling!
Unfortunately, I have not done my homework on the healthcare reform so I definitely do not know all the facts. What I have learned simply from reading the stories, and opinions on this website is that the possibilities of what will happen will impact everyone, rich, poor, healthy, ill, young and old. Sickness and disease is not something that anyone chooses but it happens and it is not prejudice, it has no respect of person but it will with all certainity eventually affect you, your family, or someone you know. Who’s responsible for that? No one, however we have elected officals responsible for ensuring fairness and equality to all American citizens, sick and healthy, young and old, taxpayer or nontaxpayer. Not everyone will agree with that but thats the facts. There is no one single answer to the healthcare problem but a resolution will have to be made and the reality is not every American citizen will be happy, healthy and sick, rich and poor, young and old, but bottom line is no one should be denied health coverage ever for something they have no control over.
So today, for the hell of it, I went “clinic-hopping” about the town. First I got a CAT scan, then a PET scan, followed by an MRI. But that’s not all. I followed up later this afternoon with an ultrasound and an EGD. I was having so much fun (thanks to my full coverage private health insurance) after spending just under a whopping $50, I declared my work unfinished and proceeded to my local doctor’s office and received a stress test coupled with an electromyography. This little visit cost me a dreadful $15!. Though all of this was completely unnecessary, I feel my day has been productive with a total of $65 well spent. Thank you health insurance, you are wonderful.
To infinity and beyond, -Carey
Nationalized Health Care is a violation of the core principles of the Constitution of the United States.
It is an area of authority intended to be given to Congress, and thus should governed by the States.
It is fact that I will need health care. I am in moderate pain as I type this. But I do not want Congress nor the government telling me (albeit indirectly through fine prints, tax credits, and other nebulous forms of control) which treatments are “approved.”
I want to think for myself what would be best, and not have prices hiked by government involvement.
Government is only good at one thing: governing. They are not doctors. They are not scientists. They are governors.
Read the Constitution. Amend it if you wish to go against its principles.
Think about it.
“So today, for the hell of it, I went “clinic-hopping” about the town. First I got a CAT scan, then a PET scan, followed by an MRI. But that’s not all. I followed up later this afternoon with an ultrasound and an EGD. I was having so much fun (thanks to my full coverage private health insurance) after spending just under a whopping $50, I declared my work unfinished and proceeded to my local doctor’s office and received a stress test coupled with an electromyography. This little visit cost me a dreadful $15!. Though all of this was completely unnecessary, I feel my day has been productive with a total of $65 well spent. Thank you health insurance, you are wonderful.
To infinity and beyond, -Carey”
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To the comment above…I hope you get a life.
I’m sorry that you were able to be lucky enough to not have a pre existing medical condition when you applied for insurance but some people aren’t that lucky. We cannot control if get sick or become sick. My cousing, at the age of 23, passed away from liver cancer and now her parents are drowning in debt because she did not have medical insurance and could not qualify for any. I may not agree with the healthcare reform but if it helps people to get the help they need, then so be it.
So today, for the hell of it, I went “clinic-hopping” about the town. First I got a CAT scan, then a PET scan, followed by an MRI. But that’s not all. I followed up later this afternoon with an ultrasound and an EGD. I was having so much fun (thanks to my full coverage private health insurance) after spending just under a whopping $50, I declared my work unfinished and proceeded to my local doctor’s office and received a stress test coupled with an electromyography. This little visit cost me a dreadful $15!. Though all of this was completely unnecessary, I feel my day has been productive with a total of $65 well spent. Thank you health insurance, you are wonderful.
To infinity and beyond, -Carey
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The best way I can sum it up is there’s a special place in hell for you….front and center. Don’t be late.
I thought you sharing your story was very inspiring despite your current difficulties. I think we take good health for granted until something hits home. There are not just problems not being covered but receiving proper coverage. I am proud that you are taking a stand and not taking it lying down. Keep up the good work!
Aside from voting for this health care reform bill… is there anything we can do?? A donation or something? Its time that we start helping our neighbors