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.
If you were new to baking, and you baked a cake that tasted horrible, would you force people to eat it? Or would you make a new cake?
Better analogy. If you're new to making roads, and you made a road that had dips and potholes would you force people to go back to walking in the woods while you learned to make the road better?
Better analogy. If you're new to making roads, and you made a road that had dips and potholes would you force people to go back to walking in the woods while you learned to make the road better?
I would redo the road. Duh.
As for Obamacare, I would immediately stop FORCING people to buy it. If it is truly good, people will still buy it.
Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.
Most don't realize that the largest# Medicaid recipients are children- 33 million children!
In FY 2011, the most current year for which national data are available, about three-quarters of all Medicaid beneficiaries were children and non-elderly, non-disabled adults (primarily, working parents), and the elderly and younger people with disabilities accounted for the remaining one-quarter
Again, if not buying insurance meant that you couldn't receive expensive healthcare then it would make sense to let people choose not to buy that product. But that's not how it works, the produce is guaranteed to be provided, so why don't you think people should be expected to pay for something they are guaranteed to receive?
As for who's paying what, are you saying the middle class should be paying more?
I'm well aware that there have been many republican proposals for alternative to the ACA, all of which have been abandoned. These plans are made up of proposals that it turns out are already in the ACA (allow for multiple states to create insurance compacts for instance) and the remaining proposals fall apart with minimal scrutiny. For instance, one plan included making available in multiple states (but more identical than the multi-state plans currently available), which requires standardized regulatory and mandate requirements in each state the plan is sold in, and yet simultaneously ensuring that each no state has to agree to the regulatory and mandate requirements of another state, which are two incompatible goals. Then there's the common proposal for a single tax credit to help buy insurance which doesn't work. Lets say you give every american taxpayer $2000 to buy insurance with. In order for that to be revenue neutral, you now have to make up a loss in revenue equivalent to $2000 per taxpayer. To get that lost revenue back in a way that is fair you now have to increase every taxpayers taxes by $2000, and you're right back where you started.
So instead of just pointing to defunct proposals that even republicans don't point to anymore, maybe you could offer some suggestions of your own?
But would you really force people back into the dangers of the woods while you repaired the road? Or does common sense dictate that we use the road and make repairs to it in stages in order to avoid sending people back into the woods?
Republican plans are either included in the ACA as the democrats were trying to work with them, or been shown to be set up in a way that would cause them to fail.
But would you really force people back into the dangers of the woods while you repaired the road? Or does common sense dictate that we use the road and make repairs to it in stages in order to avoid sending people back into the woods?
You are by far the biggest drama queen with whom I have debated. This is about the tenth time you have implied that if Obamacare is repealed, millions of people will die in an armageddon of fire and brimstone. Get over yourself. There are solutions to every problem. You can temporarily keep people on their horrible obamacare plans while obamacare is being replaced. DUH
let me guess, jaycam. you are taking a sociology class this semester as part as your nursing pre-reqs, and your far left professor has brainwashed you to love a government healthcare program that 50% of american dislike.
MunoRN, RN
8,058 Posts
Why would they? It's a payroll tax calculator.