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American Health Care: a thread.
When I was a high schooler, way back in the 1900s, as my former middle school students called it, one of my classmates contracted a strain of Hepatitis from shellfish while on vacation. It was a freak occurrence, and she became very ill.
When I was a high schooler, way back in the 1900s, as my former middle school students called it, one of my classmates contracted a strain of Hepatitis from shellfish while on vacation. It was a freak occurrence, and she became very ill.
Her family's health insurance company dropped her, as her expenses were too high (this was before several laws were passed to stop this from occurring-- insurance companies are no longer able to do this, thank Goddess).
The whole school rallied together and raised funds to cover her medical costs (though I am certain our efforts barely scratched the surface) and I remember thinking, "this seems not right. We are supposed to be a civilized nation."
Civilized nations are supposed to take care of their citizens. I became a single-issue voter that day (though I needed to wait two more years to vote) because I knew at the tender age of 16 that until ALL people have access to health care, we are not a free country.
After a lumbar discectomy at age 30, I knew I could never live without health insurance. Every career decision I have made in the last 12 years has been primarily influenced by access to health care. I have not worked in my chosen field since this time.
This is just one problem with employer-based health care: our freedom of choice is limited to employers who can provide this service to employees. With the development of ACA, very fortunately, there is greater access to health care than before, but...
I am currently on the most "affordable" ACA plan available, while I await access to insurance through work. Between my husband and me, it's more than half our rent, and we still have to cough up 100% of any medical costs up to $4.5K, at which point we are responsible for 50%.
It's barely better than no health insurance and we really can't afford it for long.
I'm on track with my new job to qualify for insurance by November (fingers crossed), but if I get sick and need to take more than two days off, I will lose working hours, which will make me ineligible. So getting sick would get me kicked off. Just like my classmate from 1994.
It's the worst kind of Catch-22... I only have access to health care if I stay healthy. If anything happens to my health, I can't work. If I cannot work, I lose insurance. This sends a message to working class Americans that they are only worth caring for if they are working.
And let's talk about profit-based medicine and health insurance, which is what most Americans have access to (Medicare is a wonderful service, but the salary requirements are so low, very few qualify). Most insurance companies are publicly traded.
This means that anyone can invest in them, much like tech companies or large restaurant chains. For commerce, public trading is a great way to increase a company's wealth while also giving the investors a few bucks. Everyone is motivated to sell, and everyone can benefit.
Let's say you invest in Hanes. Hanes is motivated to sell many underpants, which makes them money, and you get money. People wear underpants, and everyone gets what they want. Money is great. Underpants are great.
Now let's say you invest in a big pharmaceutical company. They are motivated to sell a lot of medicine to make money, and you get money. Medicine is great (it really is!) and money is great. But wait a minute: when do we need medicine? We need it when we are sick.
So, what drug company wants healthy people? Healthy people don't earn them money. Investors want returns, and medicine earns money, which means sickness earns money. This is a very twisted system, especially when you add the insurance companies back into the mix.
Insurance companies ALSO want to earn money, because they ALSO have investors waiting for their returns. So if lots of people are sick and buying medicine, which is making the drug companies (and their investors) money, then insurance companies lose money by paying for care.
So we have a system where most people need to have a full-time job with an employer that offers insurance as a "benefit" (the fact that access to health care is a "benefit" appalls me), but a serious illness can take that "benefit" away because you lose time at work.
We have profit - based companies, in whose hands we literally place our lives, whose number one goal is to earn money, alternately rooting for us to be sick (so we can buy medicine) or rooting for us to be well (so we never need costly care),
and the underlying message from all these influences is that we are only valuable if we are in perfect health and working full-time for a company already successful enough to pay for good insurance.
We are a nation being held hostage by a system based in greed rather than care. I don't want a health care system that values my money or my ability to make money more than my wellness. I want a health care system that cares for health.
I'll be voting and rooting for universal health care (yes, socialized medicine) for as long as my lungs breathe air. Until all Americans are provided with this service, I do not consider this a free or civilized country.
We've come a long way since the "1900s," but we have miles to go yet. I hope I live to see the day that Americans throw off this outdated and corrupt system and embrace Universal Health Care for all.
