Health Care

[tsukinofaerii]

Note for the unwary: I'm an American. This is relevant.

Today's rant! Health care. That is, my utter lack of it. (headdesk) My owner boss was asking for doctor recs, and I just sort of stared at her for a long time and then blurted, "I haven't been to the doctor in five years". You know, pity is not a fun thing.

Blunt fact is, I can't afford health care. Yes, my job offers some sort of group plan thing for a price, but if I had that much extra money a month I'd be a very happy camper. The net result is that if I end up with some sort of serious health condition (or dental condition, but no one puts the two together for some reason), I'm SOL. I haven't done more than look at premiums for a normal person and shudder. I'm kind of afraid to find out what I'll need to pay. But enough about me now. Lets talk about me when I was a kid, shall we? Since that was the last major health crisis I went through.

At four, I was diagnosed with patent ductus arteriosus. Not a debilitating or immediately life-threatening issue, but my parents were basically told that I'd die eventually if it wasn't corrected. Now see, they were both USAF veterans and had their health care needs covered. Unfortunately, I wasn't, and for reasons I'm still not sure I understand, I didn't qualify for state assistance. My parents were given two options:

1. Get a divorce. Then my mother would qualify for help.
2. Let my grandparents adopt me so I could be treated under their insurance.

Isn't that fun? I needed heart surgery, and we were basically told that we had to destroy our family to get it. It worked out in the end; just before the adoption went through, my Dad managed to find a job that included me in the health benefits, pre-existing condition and all, with only a short waiting period. This is one of the few points in my life that I can honestly say my father acted with only my best interests in mind. He went through hell to find and hold that job long enough for me to get the surgery—he lived in a car in the middle of winter, states away from us, for a month. And it worked out. But you know what? It pisses me off that my parents had to go through that at all. They never should have had to face that choice.

That's exactly where the free market landed us. My parents' only fault was that they didn't earn enough to get me health insurance but simultaneously earned too much for state help. I keep hearing complaints that the state will be too costly, too inefficient, too useless. Oh, and they'll run the other guys out of business because they'll be cheaper. Personally, if the free market can beat the state in terms of service, selection and value, people who can pay more will do so. The only people who will go with the state option will be the people who need it. And if they can't keep up with the state? Then it's time to get out of the business.