Here We Go Again

I had a follow-up visit with my pulmonary specialist the other day. While it looks like I am in remission, there are still cat-scans that need to be done to make sure that nothing new is growing. At the very least, he needs to check the damage from the sarcoidosis, and see if any scars have disappeared, or it they have remained the same. Without insurance it is impossible for me to have this done. And I must have this done every 6 months.

This is not a disease that should be taken lightly. It requires monitoring. How many other people are out there just like me, who need tests and cannot have them done? And that fat tub of lard Limbaugh actually says that “no one is dying because of lack of insurance”. Guess again, Rush, you self-serving blow-hard.

My doctor does not belong to the AMA. He believes it to be a corrupt organization, in bed with the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies, and he is right. My doctor also saw me at no charge – twice – due to my lack of insurance. Dean and I were touched by his genuine concern for my health and well-being, and by his dedication to serving and helping others.

Similarly, my plastic surgeon, upon learning that I had no insurance, cut her rate in ½ when she removed the basal cell carcinoma from the end of my nose. She never told me she was doing so – I simply received a bill with a notation on it. This, too, is a caring and dedicated doctor.
I am so very grateful to these two individuals for their help.

But we shouldn’t have to rely on someone actually not being paid for their services. We shouldn’t have to pray and hope that our doctors and hospitals will somehow help us to have the work done that we need in order to stay alive. We shouldn’t have to rely on prayer and hope. There should be affordable insurance for those of us who do not qualify for Medicaid due to ridiculous and antiquated Government guidelines. There should be insurance for those of us who are working for salaries that were barely adequate in 1990. There should be insurance for those of us who are working without any medical benefits being offered.

There should be a public option. Please, if you understand nothing else about it, understand this: we need the public option. Without it, without affordable insurance, people will die. People will go bankrupt. People will be refused care and help and tests that they desperately need because an accountant or a CEO at an insurance company has set the rules.

For those of you fortunate enough to have medical and health care coverage: how is it even remotely ok that you have paid many many dollars to an insurance company and that company gets to decide whether or not it will in turn cover your tests, your surgery?

You know it is not ok. You know it is not right.

Now we’re being told that we may get the public option with states being able to opt out. Why in the name of God would you opt out?

I do not know how this will end. All I know is that I will continue to make my voice heard to affect the end that we all need.