As someone who has been through plenty of ordeals with the medical community, I was compelled to write this for an alternative newspaper on campus. The political race is tightening in Wisconsin and I'm registered here to vote for the first time ever. My treatment here has been very lax and frankly ignorant at times in comparison to what I've experienced in Minnesota; my home State (it pains me a little that I won't be able to vote no on proposition 9 there that will deny gay rights if passed). Anyway, I don't expect people to be swayed to change their vote just by reading this but I want them to know what I know. You might be surprised to discover what it's like to be sick and that you must fight for insurance. I am currently awaiting the decision by my health providers for an extension on "temporary disability" so my parents don't have to pay expensive premiums to keep me on their plan. I am 26. I met Biden and I believe in the Obama platform. Thank you for reading!
Obamacare:
More than just a policy
Disease. It can strike at any time
regardless of a person's age or financial situation. Also, you don’t have to
look sick to be sick. I have learned this time and time again by watching my
own family suffer through various ailments. My little sister has an incurable
autoimmune disorder called Hypogammaglobulinemia. Beginning as early as her
years as a toddler, my sister had to be driven frequently to the emergency room
by my mom, due to high fevers. At the same time, my sister's twin has been
diagnosed with Autism, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia over the years. Do
you know what it’s like to wake up to your sister screaming bloody murder and
have no way to comfort her? Suffice to say there has never been a lack of
medical bills or stress in our home, yet it used to be manageable. My dad used
to have a decent job and we were all covered by a family health plan. Despite
our best efforts, the rub remained that the more we grew up, our ailments and
debt grew with us.
Following the trend of most
Americans, we went to college, worked over the summers, and took out student
loans. I planned just as so many others working toward their degrees at this
university do, to graduate after four years. Then, the unexpected happened. I
became ill myself. For clarification, I didn’t wake up one day and realize I
had a rare underlying illness that would cost my family loads of cash and
destroy my ability to do much of anything. In a slow and cruel process, my body
and mind deteriorated over the years. What began with "mild Depression”,
fatigue, forgetfulness, and insomnia, eventually catapulted my condition into a
scenario entailing a loss of both enrollment and employment, while my body
gained in pounds. My family made jokes about “chipmunk cheeks” and a “beer
belly” at first. On the inside I was reeling. I no longer resembled or felt
like myself and couldn't understand why. I wasn't even aware of the full extent
of what was happening to me, as my muscles were silently wearing away and my
blood pressure skyrocketed.
It turns out I had Cushing’s
Syndrome, which was brought on from an adrenal gland tumor. The tumor was over-secreting
Cortisol, a hormone controlling a person's sleep patterns and stress levels. As
a result all of the nutrients I ate were stored as fat, instead of rejuvenating
my body. My diurnal clock began to run on a Chinese time zone and the other
adrenal gland started to shrink; my immune system was on the fritz. By the time
we learned of it all, I was already 25. Thankfully, President Barack Obama's
Affordable Care Act, or more affectionately known as "Obamacare," had
become law. The surgery my body required was rare, expensive, and performed by
specialists who required a person to have some form of health insurance to even
apply for it. I would have had to pay out-of-pocket, but since Obamacare allows
a child to be covered under their parent's health plan until the age of 26, I
received the operation I needed.
Since the surgery that removed
the infected gland, I've continued to rack up medical bills stemming from half
a dozen trips to the emergency room due to anemia, fainting, vomiting, a severe
prescription drug reaction, and other secondary complications. At those times, I
was afraid the pain would never stop, but my fear of affording my bills far
outweighs any of my nightmarish experiences. I have spent more on health care
than school loans. I feel powerless in the face of the extreme debt I am putting
my parents in. My dad, already 61 years-old, works overtime just to get by.
With every chance I get to see him, I wonder if that rapidly aging face will
ever get the chance to see retirement. From the time I was diagnosed, I
continue to struggle finding my own employment. Going to all my classes is a
struggle in and of itself.
The current medical system and
health care insurance industry have been frighteningly callous towards my
family. I can’t believe someone my age would have to go through what I have in
the United States of America. Because I am 26, I am now hanging onto the
Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) by a thread with the mantra of “temporary
disability” as my savior. This could be revoked at any time my insurance
company decides I’m too much of a liability. One of the secondary complications
from the Cushing's Syndrome has resulted in the crippling of my gallbladder,
which means I am going to have an additional surgery to dispose of it. My
disease even falls into the debate over whether birth control should be
affordable and accessible; with my body
unable to maintain proper hormone levels, thankfully, Obamacare requires
insurance corporations to provide coverage for birth control and other
preventative health care services without being charged for additional co-pays
and deductibles.
I broke into tears of gratitude
when I met Vice President Joe Biden last week. This election on November 6th means
so much to me, as well as so many other students that are all too familiar with
these issues. As far as I’m concerned, President Obama has made steps in the
right direction. I'm utterly terrified of Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and Tommy
Thompson's plan to transform Medicare into a voucher system that won't come
close to covering the full costs of health care. This is the same health care
my autistic sister, unable to work or live on her own, depends on just to stay
functional and survive.
Anyone with a pre-existing condition
knows that letting a “free market” of corporate monoliths, prioritizing the
need to turn a profit over the quality of a patient's health care, decide who's
worth treating and who they should refuse care to will simply lead to an
increase in patients needing treatment, while the cost of health care continues
its ascent and rising health care premiums. I also don’t see why something such
as health care, which is one of the basic rights every human being should have
access to according to the United Nation's Declaration of Human Rights, should
be an issue that's simply left up to individual states to decide on. We need to
make it federal. We need to make it the law! I didn't write this because I want
showers of praise for our struggles. I want change. Not the kind of back-handed,
"shop around" change that Romney is proposing. I simply can’t. An
insurmountable pile of medical bills shouldn't be a person's only option.
Your vote isn’t about what’s in
your pocketbook. It’s about what’s right for the country and your fellow
American. We all get sick. It can happen anytime and anywhere. It doesn’t
matter if you’re rich, poor, young, old, black, white, gay, straight,
religious, or secular. Even as we strive to persevere, my family and I pay income taxes. Mitt Romney has recently doubled down
on an arrogant assertion he made earlier this year, when he suggested 150
million Americans, or roughly half the nation, refuse to "take responsibility
and care for their lives,""pay no income tax," and continues to
generalize about "47%" of America as "dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims,
who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them. My job
is not to worry about those people." Are seniors, veterans, students, and
the disabled unworthy of such elitist goods as quality health care? For
clarification, I am not in dependence; I am in need of assistance. If Mitt
Romney genuinely cared about me becoming a productive member of society capable of paying
more in taxes, while consuming less in governmental services, he'd fight for me
in a time when I needed his assistance.
America
has fallen behind the rest of the world in its ability to provide equal access
to health security. Dreams are dying along with their dreamers, unable to afford
their right to life. But...hope remains. Since the passing of Obamacare less than two
years ago, over three million young adults now have health insurance until the
age of 26, a number that will continue to rise as the law's provisions are gradually
implemented in different states. What may appear as abstract achievements featured
on a graph, really serve to represent the immeasurable difference in the hearts
of those who have been given some relief in a time of uncertainty and
sacrifice. We don’t leave the sick and poor behind. We the people are not
leeches. We are human beings and need a helping hand when push comes to shove.
This is a challenge that simply fails to measure up to the richest nation in
the world. When you or someone you love experiences a health crisis, your first
thought doesn't have to be, “how are we going to pay for this?”
Students have a choice this
fall. You still have a choice. Vote.
