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.
I'm glad you were able to get needed healthcare. I just wish we all had standard national insurance. We already pay for medicare that we can't access till we are 65. Why not just pay for national healthcare that we have access to now, not decades later! Instead we are at the mercy of our employer's choice of healthcare or worse having to pay for overpriced health insurance on the market, unless we are poor enough for medicaid. The present situation still leaves many of us under insured, especially if we or anyone in our family have chronic health problems! Obamacare limits max out of pockets to around $6,250 individual and I think 12,500 family, but who has that kind of money on a yearly basis! I know I don't!
I'm glad you were able to get needed healthcare. I just wish we all had standard national insurance. We already pay for medicare that we can't access till we are 65. Why not just pay for national healthcare that we have access to now, not decades later! Instead we are at the mercy of our employer's choice of healthcare or worse having to pay for overpriced health insurance on the market, unless we are poor enough for medicaid. The present situation still leaves many of us under insured, especially if we or anyone in our family have chronic health problems! Obamacare limits max out of pockets to around $6,250 individual and I think 12,500 family, but who has that kind of money on a yearly basis! I know I don't!
I don't know what the other states look like, but in California I don't think the exchanges are that over priced. Expensive yes, but considering what our employers pay for a good policy (our family policy thru an employer is still over $400/mo more than my SO's family policy for comparable good coverage with affordable copays), the cost of healthcare and the numbers using tertiary care for chronic illness.
It is expensive for those who fall between Medicaid and not qualifying for subsidies but I also believe that we in general prefer to spend money on tangibles and non essentials before we budget for our healthcare.
I dont know what our healthcare costs both in premiums and expenditures would look like if as a society we practiced better lifestyle and preventive/compliance measures but dang I sure would like to see it how it would play out.
Amen! I worked as a nurse for 32 years until becoming disabled by diabetic neuropathy and narcolepsy. It took over 2 years with no income to finally be approved for disability under SS. During that time I had no insurance, and didn't qualify for Tenncare (my roommate covered my share of the rent so I had a place to live). I did qualify for food stamps so we had food but I had to rely on others to pay for my medications, and had to switch to the cheapest or stop some entirely because i had no way to pay for them. My health care was through free clinics which had no docs to care for my sleep apnea or narcolepsy, but I was able to have my diabetes and hypothyroidism monitored. Needless to say, medical equipment such as my CPAP supplies, which should be replaced frequently, glasses, walker repairs were unobtainable during this time. I was told going without my CPAP WAS RISKING DEATH so I used the same mask (replace at least every 3 months) until it broke and then cannibalized my old ones for parts to fix it, the hose and water chamber used until I became eligible for Medicare (replace every 6 months). I have now been told I have beginning COPD after several respiratory infections that I feel were, if not caused, then certainly exacerbated by this. I do not fully understand all the ramifications of the Affordable Care Act, but it has to be better than letting our citizens go without any health care or minimal care as we do now.
I'm just not sure that this would be any different today unless you qualify for medicaid off the bat! Chances are the premiums and out of pockets would be unaffordable today, plus most states require you to give any property you have to them after you die! So medicaid really isn't free unless you are totally destitute and own nothing, which most disabled nurses probably aren't! Most of us probably have a house, some emergency savings and retirement savings that would have to be drawn down to qualify for medicaid before we would qualify for medicare! How many of us could afford cobra premiums if we were unemployed or disabled?
And I'm frustrated that people refuse to understand why those of us getting screwed by it don't like it.
I can understand not liking it. I benefited from it and I still don't like it. I just don't understand the hatred for it that others have. It's better than before and can get better still if we work at it.
I don't get the hatred for it either. It didn't make things better for me but healthcare should be a right in this country and we needed to get out of inertia and move towards it.
I'm shocked at these insurance prices everyone is paying. These jobs aren't offering any good benefits. Through my husband's job we pay only $120 per month for both of us combined for a really good blue cross blue shield policy. This includes heath, dental, and vision. Only a $1000 deductible.
Well you are very lucky! Does your husband have a city or govt job or work as a teacher that he gets such excellent and low cost benefits?
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
^^Ruby
I am 39 yo, and have lost over 50lbs at times. And can do it again and again from the knowledge I gained as a competitive bodybuilder. As have many of the people I know, well past their forties It's easy based on mindset, not physicality. (For me) But I do agree the longer one abusing their body by not eating clean and exercising the harder it is to recover from the damage inflicted throughout those decades.
I have never lived on a farm, btw. Have you lived in a trailer park?
Only for one summer. Lived in a tent for awhile, though, on the farm.
I have offered no nutritional advice. But I absolutely know how many experts are far from that.
And because I know what I know I can spot lack of understanding in people comments. Just the same as being as nurse describing functions in details to people that do not have the same level of comprehensive understanding.
What I do know is there are millions that believe that doctors and nurses understand nutrition because of credentials alone and that is ignorance to a high level.
So even if we assume you're right, that you are the one true source for accurate nutritional and exercise knowledge, are you saying that if we replaced using doctors, nurses, and nutritionists with counseling by eroc that we won't need health insurance?
So even if we assume you're right, that you are the one true source for accurate nutritional and exercise knowledge, are you saying that if we replaced using doctors, nurses, and nutritionists with counseling by eroc that we won't need health insurance?
Let's see…it works SO well doing that now.
But sure put words down I never stated, and simplify it to an enormous ignorant statement.
You know, it doesn't matter how each person post continues to give excuses, yet they have not solution to their own problems. I have heard statement like "I have tried everything" then I ask them have you done this? "Well, no" proceeded by excuses.
I honestly think it's sad, but also kinda funny, when people tell me "it's just not that easy", yet I have done it and so does every person that includes proper diet and exercise in their DAILY lives ongoing. (not start- stop…give-up)
How about you and the other disagreeing stop makes excuses. Study up, learn, implement and come back and tell me I am wrong. Listening to someone tell you what you want to hear….then sending you a bill even after a lack of results is not the answer….which is obvious or we wouldn't have such an unhealthy society. Chronic illness has skyrocketed.
Go ahead and support the mass idea that it's going to work out believing everyone should pay for others lack of effort. It's working SO well for society, lol.
Tell you what…..I am wrong, despite I get my desired results, and you guys are right with a lack of results.
You got me. I am the ignorant one here. Thanks for showing me the way!!
Good luck to everyone of you….but I am the one that needs it, right?
heron, ASN, RN
4,661 Posts
Bless your heart.