Calling us Lucky, for now
He had it before. It gave him painful headaches late at night and affected his ability to sleep or rest. But by morning, the pain would be gone, and he would be left exhausted.
We just got back from vacation, and the next day was supposed to be his first day back at work. But he called in sick. Exhausted from having experienced a night of pain and agony, he decided to see a doctor.
We have insurance. Great insurance as a matter of fact. But none of the doctors listed on the insurance list had any openings. One of the them didn't have an opening till the end of next month! So, I told my husband to call Ambulatory Care. Having lived in the Midwest for 3 years I got used to the convenience of what they call Urgent Care Centers. They were medical centers for situations just like these, where the diagnosis was simple and all that was needed was a prescription. The centers were lovely and looked like spa centers, with huge fish tanks holding tropical fish in the lobbies, or trickling waterfalls at the bottom of the staircases. We didn't have any special type of insurance, but we did have private insurance through his employer.
The Ambulatory Care Centers here in NYC aren't as wonderful or as clean. The service is awful and I swear people hate their jobs there and everyone that comes in everyday keeping them employed. And they also don't accept most private insurance plans. A day at the ER was unacceptable, so after some researching we cross the bridge to NJ, drove 30 minutes to a CVS Pharmacy and waited an hour to see a doctor at one of their "minute clinics".
And we are the "Lucky" ones. We are the ones who have good insurance provided by my husband's employer (well, good because neither of us has a terminal disease, or are needing extensive care or surgery, or have suffered any traumatic health related issues).
And yet, here we were, something simple and easy, so difficult to care for. I can't even imagine it being worse, and us not having anything like the millions in our country today.
But, this benefit, this luxury available to my family, this struggle to find a doctor, this inability to see one when it matters most, this need to travel and research, suffer and wait, this crap is what we are fighting for? What we are wanting to protect?
No. The system is broken, in more ways than those causing roadblocks and creating lies, causing riots and spreading ignorance, will ever understand.
I have been pregnant, with no insurance, and no job. With the prospect of potentially having to pay more than $11,000 for the birth of my child, just the birth, not including drugs or anything else. But..again, call us lucky, my husband found a job just in time, out of state, and we moved. In search of insurance for our child. I had gone two trimesters pregnant without seeing a doctor. My husband made too much as a freelancer, so we didn't qualify for Medicaid, and we couldn't afford Cobra. We were, for all those months "those people", the "wannabe freeloaders", the people who you would have to pay a little more in your taxes for. But both college graduates, professionals, who just happen to not have insurance, who were expecting a baby...who at some point or another had paid into the system that was now rejecting them when they needed the help.
So, it's not because I am a Liberal. It's not because I think that the displays of hate and ugliness seen and heard in town halls across the country have set us way back as a country and have only exposed even more disgusting personalities in our small towns and big government. It isn't because I am so blind of my support of our current President that I support the propositions being set forth for change in healthcare in this country.
It is because I have been poor, without insurance, and middle class with insurance, and I can say, without an ounce of doubt in my mind, this system doesn't work and though I am grateful to have more than so many, I only have as much till our lucky streak runs out and we actually get sick.
And as for my baby boy, I have no one to thank for, not our country, not our government for his being healthy and born without any problems. That was all luck too.
This is an original NYC Moms Blog.
Carol is The Adventures of an NYCity Mama.
