Healthcare...Yes We Did

For those of my friends, families and readers who are die-hard Republicans, Obama-haters, anti-socialist healthcare or anti-Obama's healthcare bill-ists and healthcare non-reformists, I'd like you to take a step back and listen to a story about a young, successful and hardworking woman whom you've either come to love or have loved your whole life...me.

As you should know by now, I lost my job eight months ago.  When I was employed, I had a high deductible plan and an HSA.  I said good-bye to all that coverage and never said hello to COBRA or other coverage as it was too expensive on a monthly basis to warrant paying for.  Besides, I'd always been healthy and accident-free.  If I was in a car accident, I'd have had my car insurance cover medical bills.

But alas, eight months into unemployment and I've suffered a concussion at the hands of a negligent drunk person and serious dehydration due to food poisoning or a virus.  Both times I was in the emergency room and had the full schedule of doctors, nurses and radiologists doing what they do best: making sure I was okay and charging me an arm and a leg for it.

I've never had debt in my life.  No student loans.  I paid my way through school by working a lot and making sure I could always pay for school at the beginning of each semester.  I've paid cash for both cars I've owned.  No car loans.  No credit card debt.  Now, I do have a mortgage but that is "good debt," I am told.  I have a little bit of credit card debt and a LOT of hospital bills that if I were to pay, would not be able to pay my mortgage.  Why, do you ask?  Because I have no healthcare plan or coverage.  Because COBRA is so expensive, I decided I would rather take the risk of sickness than pay for it monthly and not be able to put a roof over my head at some point.  

It turns out, I did get sick.  It's nothing you can help or prevent when it comes right down to it.  I was careful.  I wasn't willfully negligent in how I conducted myself.  I was insulated from workplace germs.  I still got very, very sick.  I'm also single.  I have no one but myself to count on for pay for things.  It's all me, all the time.

I've also always been a productive member of society, paying my taxes and giving back to my community.  While I now depend on federal aid to make ends meet, that's how it's designed to work.  I've worked since I was 16, paid taxes and now, in a time when the economy is in a funk through no fault of mine, the government is helping me out.  I'm still better off than many people, but I cannot go to the doctor unless it's an emergency.  This costs more than preventive care, and millions are in the same boat as I am.

Stop.  Think.  I am someone you love.  I am someone you care about.  You do not want me to die because I could not afford healthcare.  You know I have done nothing to deserve my situation.  I am not willfully sucking public coffers dry because I choose not to work.  I am still contributing to my community as I am able.  Why don't you want me to have affordable, universal healthcare?  Are you afraid of a socialist state?

Taxes?  You are afraid of taxes?  Really?  Would not one of you, if I was laying on my deathbed and unable to afford lifesaving medicine, pay for it so I could live?  So why would you now not want to contribute to my health and well-being in a slightly different manner?  Do you only want to pick and choose who deserves healthcare and when?  "Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me." 

Maybe you're afraid of socialism, the big bad wolf.  I don't think we're going to be sending our country in a spiralling whirlwind towards socialism.  We are too firmly rooted in capitalism.  I'm assuming 90% of the Republicans and others I know who are against this healthcare reform are Christian.  Since when is it Christian to not care about others? 

Why don't you want me to have healthcare?