I listened to Obama speak to Congress tonight about the proposed health insurance reform. I was in my car, in Oklahoma, a heartily Republican kind of a place, where the legislators are encouraged to put a stop to all that Socialist nonsense.
Look, I didn’t want to tell you this. I figure a lot of other people have stories worse than mine. But I’m the only one with my story. That make sense?
Here goes.
The job I lost allowed me to buy health insurance at a reasonable cost for the first time in my life. My ex-husband had worked at a small company that couldn’t afford to insure its folks. He’d also been self-employed. In both cases, costs were prohibitive and coverage was spotty.
My shoulder had ached for a year. Then my hand went numb. When I turned my head to the right, my left leg went numb. I went to a neurosurgeon. While waiting to see the doctor, a woman and I traded stories.
She had a degenerative disease of the joints that was attacking her spine. She had no spinal fluid left to cushion the spinal cord. If she fell or moved abruptly, she could become paralyzed. She couldn’t work. Her daughter had left college and taken a minimum wage job to live with and care for her mother. The mother had worked her whole life to send her child to school. She was waiting for her pain medications, the only treatment that was available to her. She had no insurance. She was five years older than me.
Within an hour I had my diagnosis. I had the same disease. It was a Monday. I was scheduled for surgery on Wednesday morning because of the severity of the pain and the danger of allowing the degeneration to proceed without intervention. By Wednesday afternoon I had an artificial vertebrae. The bone spurs that were growing into nerve tissue had been removed. I had a titanium plate stabilizing my spine.
By Saturday I was back at work.
Two years later I’m out of work.
Now I have a pre-existing condition. I’m afraid I may never get coverage again. I don’t want to bankrupt my children of their money or their time. I don’t want to live in the kind of pain that woman experienced.
Be safe, be cautious, ask questions, write letters, visit your Congress person, but for the love of God and me and the people whose stories are infinitely worse, do your damnedest to find a way that we can afford health-care.
I’d really appreciate it.
