I am sick. Not just your average cold or flu sick. I have a rare,
progressive disorder that, in large spurts, gets worse and worse. It has slowly
stolen things from me. My physical life, my social life, many of my pastimes
and my ability to work. This is the downward spiral I have lived in for over 9
years now but out of everything I have lost, no longer being financially stable was the
most demeaning and, yet, the thing I could not solely blame on my illness.
When I was in my twenties, I didn't always
carry insurance. Mostly because I could not afford it but also because I worked
a lot of temp jobs. Then I got a career not of my choice but because of
necessity. I opted to carry insurance because I could now afford it and was
getting older.
I worked for a local company back then and
it was just me I had to carry insurance for. The premiums were not too bad. I
never paid more than $10 for my prescriptions and co-pays and all was right in
my world. As a few years went by I moved with my client to a bigger sales and marketing
company and had to start paying for a PPO because my company was based out of
California. The higher payments and co-pays were still worth it since this is
about the time my mysterious disease started hitting me.
After a couple more years, I had to put my
husband on my insurance because he became disabled. Now my premiums for two
people were taken from my check 24 times a year at a whopping $865 a pop. It
cost me and my husband $40 to see a doctor and most our prescriptions, because
now I was battling a rare disease, were in the third tier so I was out of
pocket up to $500 a month for medicine. This is not including any procedure my
husband or I had to get done. Those ran me a few hundred dollars each and
happened at least three times a year. All told, I was paying over $25K a year
for our premiums and out of pocket expenses. That was almost half of my $55K
salary.
At this time we had been renting a house
and were always on time with paying rent and utilities but as the medical bills
piled up, I learned how to juggle and juggle I did. I found out that in
Massachusetts they could not shut off your power from October 15th to April
15th and would go months without paying that bill. I could live without cable
but needed internet in the house for when I worked at home. We got rid of the
landline and used just a cell phone. We lived on a lot of foods that were cheap
and not very healthy which wasn't good for my disorder since my lymphatic
system no longer works.
My landlord was very sympathetic since he
had two daughters my same age with health issues of their own and would let me
slide on paying him when he could. I'd end up borrowing money from my parents
just to cover things when I needed to but hardly ever could pay them back. I
borrowed $30K against their home equity over a three year period and took loans
against my 401K just to stay afloat.
On top of battling my sickness and helping
my husband deal with his, I now felt like I was a burden and it was a huge blow
to my dignity every time I had to beg and borrow. I wouldn't go as far as
saying I stole though that is what I felt like every time I needed to ask my
parents for another few hundred dollars. I'd feel guilty anytime I splurged on
a dinner out or a new article of clothing for work. All through this I
continued to work no less than 50 hours a week and often times up to 100. The
mental stress was making me sicker but I saw no way out.
Finally three years ago, I had to stop the
madness. My husband and I moved into my parents' house. We are now the
stereotypical kids living in their parents' basement but we were very lucky to
have that option. I know many others struggling with medical issues and paying
their bills who will go weeks without power or will eat next to nothing just
because they cannot afford their medications and food together. They silently
sit suffering because they don't have the money to see their PCP but are not
sick enough to warrant going to the emergency room where the hospital has to
treat them even if they cannot afford to pay the bill.
About two years ago, my symptoms got bad
enough that I no longer could work. With that I lost my insurance but I was put
on Mass Health (aka Romneycare, the basis of the ACA/Obamacare) and though I pay
no premium or co-pays and my husband's, who has Silverscripts, prescriptions are $3.65 or less, I still cannot
get most of my medications I need because they are not covered. One medication
that worked really well for me costs $600 for 30 pills. Needless to say, I
don't take that pill anymore and I deal with the symptom as best I can.
So what does telling my story say about
our current healthcare system in the United States and why I believe in
Medicare-For-All?
Well, first of all it angers me that there
are companies out there making money off illness. I'm not talking about a
little money. I am talking huge profits. For example, UnitedHealth Group made
$10.3 billion in profits in 2014 and Pfizer, one of the Big Pharma companies,
made $39.2 billion in gross profits in 2015.
Secondly, we are touted as being the
greatest country ever and yet we find it acceptable to treat our most
vulnerable like they are a blight. The elderly, disabled and poor do not
deserve to be helped in some people's eyes. I love my country. I always have but this is
disgraceful.
With Medicare-For-All, the program that
Bernie Sanders is promoting, the government would be the sole customer to Big
Pharma and they would be able to fight for better prices. Also getting rid of
private insurance companies would make it so the doctors and hospitals would
only have to deal with one system.
There are many other benefits including
economic ones that I won't go into detail about here. If you want more
information on it go to http://www.medicareforall.org/pages/Benefits
My driving goal in advocating this plan is
that I do not want what happened to me to ever happen to another person or
family. I will use all the energy and time I can muster and continue to fight
for Medicare-For-All.
As for my support for Bernie, it is this
program that brought me into the fold but the many other programs he is
proposing that will be a godsend to many, many people who are vulnerable right
now in this country's current economic environment, that makes me appreciate
him a little more every day. He genuinely cannot stand seeing people suffer in
anyway and wants to make this world a little better for everyone.
After all, LOVE TRUMPS HATE!
