There was a time when I would've considered the ACA unnecessary. That I would've been annoyed by it. This was also a time where I had little to no interest in politics. It's funny how life has a way of humbling a person and teaching them something new about themselves on a regular basis. This is a story about how I ended up needing the help in order to make myself better.
"Well why didn't you just get a new inhaler?" I felt a sinking pit in my stomach. I was at a follow up visit to my doctor after ending up in the ER a few weeks before because bronchitis had made my asthma worse and I couldn't breathe. The first thing my doctor asked me was where my inhaler was when this had happened. After all, that was in my plan. I tried to explain to her that I only had one inhaler and it had been stolen the week before when I was riding the bus. Somehow, despite my explanation she didn't understand that since I was uninsured at the time, I just couldn't afford a new one. It was only after the ER trip that a friend of mine had pity on me and bought the inhaler for me.
I lost my insurance in April 2012 because I had been working at a call center that had outsourced its customer service department overseas. This was my fourth lay off in about six years. The whole time I had been trying to go back to school but in playing musical jobs I had never managed to do so. I decided to make school my focus and work secondary and deal with it.
Because I have asthma, I've never been able to get insurance without going through my work before. COBRA would've cost me over six hundred a month, and while my state had opened a high risk pool, it was still too expensive. My NP was awesome and made sure I got refills of my medication before I lost my insurance and gave me a list of community services for when I did lose it, because she knew I wouldn't be able to come back afterwards.
I did everything I could to make sure I would be taken care of. I signed up for a prescription plan at a local pharmacy, I found local clinic that was free, run on community donations. Still there are things that free clinics couldn't handle. Waiting all week to see a doctor because you got sick on Sunday and the free clinic is only open on Saturday isn't helpful when you're so sick you can't breathe. The doctors are volunteers so there's no guarantee of continuous care. In fact, the push is to get you into a local public health or community clinic, but they often were not taking new adult patients or were an hour drive away.
It was about a month after I lost my insurance when I found a lump on my right side, along the edge of the breast tissue. The free clinic provided me a referral but when I called the places they suggested I was turned away. I was told I was too young, that the office no longer provided services, or that they were out of funds for the year. I continued to fight to find a way to access services, but without a referral from a PCP I was getting nowhere. I finally took the time to bus out to one of the few clinics taking patients. They contacted a local imaging center attached to a public hospital to get me in. This started in June, I was finally in for imaging in October. In November I would get a biopsy and find out it was benign. It took me six months from start to finish to find out what was there.
It would be another year before I would get insurance again. In that time I ended up in the ER enough times the doctors started to recognize me. There really wasn't anything either of us could do. I couldn't manage my health without being able to afford regular doctor's visits and medication and they couldn't make a solution appear out of thin air. My wisdom teeth got infected and had to be removed but had to wait two months for a dentist who would help. I was on antibiotics so long I ended up with a GI infection. Bronchitis, allergic reaction, a set of second degree burns from how bad at cooking I can be. They got to deal with it all, despite the fact that most of these things were preventable.
All if this changed in January of last year. I live in one of the states that approved the Medicaid expansion and set up their own healthcare exchange. I was there on day one to shake hands with the Governor, tell him my story, and sign up. I stood up with him to others to encourage them to use the exchange as well. It is the only day of class I've missed since I started back.
Because of the Affordable Care Act I was able to get needed blood work that I had not been able to afford. Reliable access to medication. The first thing my PCP did, remembering how just a few months earlier I had ended up in the ER because I didn't have an inhaler was make sure to get me a prescription for one so I had a backup. One thing I know is I appreciate the opportunity more than I could ever express.
I know there are naysayers out there who will tell me that those things are not really free and that someone has to pay for them. One day I'll graduate and that person will be me. I seriously hope that I am paying to make sure someone gets the care they need with the money I pay into the system. It's saner than paying for what happens when they can't. The system we have isn't perfect, but it can only get better if we put effort into it.
Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.
I pay insurance also that if some ass T bones me and writes my car off and doesnt have insurance I dont end up out of pocket. In essence as well as protecting my butt I'm paying for the other drivers stupidity.
I worked with people with an intellectual disability. 95% of them will never be able to participate in the market place to earn a living
I believe that as a society we have a ethical obligation to care for those who are unable to care for themselves.
That said, there are some who choose to make the benefit a life style choice and really need to get of their asses, get a job and stop sponging off others.
I would rather however live in a society where I have the assurance that should I get struck down by illness or end up in an accident where I have to take time off work i wont end up homeless and destitute or even worse with medical bills of hundreds of thousands of dollars
I understand what your saying but why should the taxpayer be footing the bill? If you're paying insurance their should be no limitations on what service is covered. This is the insurance companies way of stuffing their fat pockets even more. Its just like when you get into an accident. You've been driving for 10 years and paying your premiums on time, but get a little fender bender, then they jack up your premium. So where is all that money that you've been paying for the past 10 years. I really believe that the insurance companies are the ones running this country.
Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.
Andy and Turtles ....I stand with you :). I admire your tenacity to educate these libs, but like Michael Savage said : "Liberalism is a mental disorder".
Somebody also said "You can judge the character of a society, by how it treats its most vulnerable"
Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.
So does that mean you live in a different country? If so why are you so interested in forcing the people in the US to accept something that the majority dislikes?
No ones forcing anyone to do anything. The fact that you think so, you are grossly over representing my abilities
Its a message board, and last time I looked we are allowed to express our opinions.
Perhaps you need to reread EMTALA and learn to differentiate between emergency care and universal healthcare.
I'm well aware that EMTALA does not create universal healthcare, what it creates is public liability for the services that cost most (acute inpatient care) without trying to prevent those costs from happening in the first place. Someone walks into an ED with a stroke, spends a couple weeks in the ICU where they transition to a trach, and then they go to a vent farm, all of that falls under EMTALA and likes results in us all picking up that bill which will likely exceed $1 million. That same patient walks into a clinic a few years before that to get screened and treated for their HTN and DM and leads to the eventual stroke and we for some reason that's not our problem. Meaning that we're essentially saying we'd rather pay the $1 million than the few thousand needed to manage the diseases in the first place which is hard to describe as anything other than idiocy.
Universal healthcare on the other hand sees the connection between the HTN and DM and the risk of an eventual stroke, MI, ESRD, etc and choses to try and avoid those higher costs. Universal healthcare is choosing to pay for more oil when your engine oil is low, EMTALA without universal healthcare is like choosing to replace the engine instead of spending money on oil.
Explain to us why the link I gave to THE CBO WEBSITE has a CBO ISSUED statement that states (quote):
"The reduction in CBO's projections of hours worked represents a decline in the number of full-time-equivalent workers of about 2.0 million in 2017, rising to about 2.5 million in 2024."
That's what I just explained, and included the CBO's statement on why your interpretation is incorrect:
Q: Will 2.5 Million People Lose Their Jobs in 2024 Because of the ACA?A: No, we would not describe our estimates in that way...Because the longer-term reduction in work is expected to come almost entirely from a decline in the amount of labor that workers choose to supply in response to the changes in their incentives, we do not think it is accurate to say that the reduction stems from people losing†their jobs...
Thus, there is a critical difference between, on the one hand, people who leave a job for reasons beyond their control and, on the other hand, people who choose not to work or to work less. The wording that people use to describe those differing circumstances reflects the different reactions of the people involved. In our report, we indicated that the estimated reduction [in employment] stems almost entirely from a net decline in the amount of labor that workers choose to supply,†so we think the language of losing a job†does not fit.
Here's the full CBO explanation:https://www.cbo.gov/publication/45096
It can be confusing because believe it or not, there are those who have taken a purely partisan stance on healthcare reform and don't accurately describe things like the CBO report on worker demand for hours, so there are some misleading interpretations of these sorts of things out there.
Specializes in E/R, Med/Surg, PCU, Mom-Baby, ICU, more.
June 11, 2009: "No matter how we reform health care, I intend to keep this promise: If you like your doctor, you'll be able to keep your doctor; if you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan."
Specializes in E/R, Med/Surg, PCU, Mom-Baby, ICU, more.
That's what I just explained, and included the CBO's statement on why your interpretation is incorrect:
The actual fact is the CBO made the statement first and I guess someone from the administration told them they better s̶p̶i̶n̶ write an explanation.
What a load of hyperbole. The only reason those kids are alive is a terribly designed, fraudulently passed wealth transfer program disguised as health insurance? Sure.
It's not really possible to "disguise" health insurance as a wealth transfer program since by definition health insurance has always been wealth redistribution, that's the whole point of health insurance.
Healthcare costs are not evenly distributed over time or in terms of costs. Very few people can afford an unexpected $200k bill, and most of these costs occur near the end of life, when it's very unlikely someone will be able to make up their costs after the fact. So to deal with both of those issues, we pool our risk/cost of things that are beyond what we can pay on our own (beyond the deductible) and we pay into the system largely before we need the services the insurance pays for.
If we didn't have some form of this sort of "wealth transfer program" our healthcare system as we know it would not exist.
The actual fact is the CBO made the statement first and I guess someone from the administration told them they better s̶p̶i̶n̶ write an explanation.
The initial CBO statement is no different than their FAQ's they put out on the subject. From the initial CBO report you provided earlier:
The estimated reduction stems almost entirely from a net decline in the amount of labor that workers choose to supply, rather than from a net drop in businesses demand for labor"
All the FAQ's did was to further expand on that same statement, mainly in an attempt to un-spin the misleading descriptions of their report that were circulating.
June 11, 2009: "No matter how we reform health care, I intend to keep this promise: If you like your doctor, you'll be able to keep your doctor; if you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan."
Barack Hussein Obama
I completely agree those were completely false promises, there were no changes made to the system that already existed which allows insurers to weed out high-cost doctors and for doctors to be able to refuse low-reimbursement plans. It's disappointing that Obama thought it was possible to make that guarantee without making some sort of change, although it's also disappointing that much of the public is so ignorant of how our healthcare system works that they found that plausible.
So I take it you believe we should guarantee that people can see whatever doctor they want and have it fully covered under any insurance plan?
Specializes in E/R, Med/Surg, PCU, Mom-Baby, ICU, more.
... That same patient walks into a clinic a few years before that to get screened and treated for their HTN and DM and leads to the eventual stroke and we for some reason that's not our problem...
"Screening" for CVA's? The only time you get warning for an upcoming CVA is by having a TIA which is usually due to a stenosis secondary to plaque. They don't do carotid ultrasounds routinely unless you get a TIA. Some ischemic CVA's are due to a thrombus and no one can predict a clot developing and moving. Some have gone their whole lives without an MRI or CT scan of their head so aneurysms or an AVM can happen suddenly.
Specializes in E/R, Med/Surg, PCU, Mom-Baby, ICU, more.
All the FAQ's did was to further expand on that same statement, mainly in an attempt to un-spin the misleading descriptions of their report that were circulating.
However they failed to mention that employers were reducing workers hours to part time so that they would not be required to furnish insurance. Cause and effect.
Tenebrae, BSN, RN
2,021 Posts
I pay insurance also that if some ass T bones me and writes my car off and doesnt have insurance I dont end up out of pocket. In essence as well as protecting my butt I'm paying for the other drivers stupidity.
I worked with people with an intellectual disability. 95% of them will never be able to participate in the market place to earn a living
I believe that as a society we have a ethical obligation to care for those who are unable to care for themselves.
That said, there are some who choose to make the benefit a life style choice and really need to get of their asses, get a job and stop sponging off others.
I would rather however live in a society where I have the assurance that should I get struck down by illness or end up in an accident where I have to take time off work i wont end up homeless and destitute or even worse with medical bills of hundreds of thousands of dollars