This is rather long, so bear with me.
If anyone ever follows my post history, you would see that I used to be the typical card carrying conservative on every issue from war to healthcare. The whole "personal responsibility" and "free market" line was the way I soothed my conscious when I was forced to ponder 50 million people without health insurance. I was raised by good parents who sent me to a good school, paid for my college, and then supported me until I got my first professional job and started carrying my own insurance. Supporting myself and being responsible came easy to me.
Fast forward several years to my mid 20's. My wife comes to me with a look of terror on her face. She was in the shower, and she noticed blood coming from one of her breasts. I of course go to WebMD, and based on my reading, find out that bleeding from the breast translates to a very high correlation with breast cancer. I try to think of everything I can to explain this away, for instance she was shaving her legs, and perhaps nicked herself with the razor. Anyways, we of course schedule an appointment with her OBGYN, which is easy because we are financially stable and insured. We have an appointment 3 days later, which is an excruciating 3 days, because I'm pretty much bracing myself for a cancer fight. She goes to the OB, they examine her breasts, and tell her she feels something that should be checked out, and sends her to radiology for a mammogram. We feel cancer is inevitable at this point. She goes in for the mammogram, and then we simply have to go home and wait for the results. I'm not a very religious man, but that night I laid in bed and prayed to god to spare my wife. I said I would give anything, and never ask for anything again.
The results come in, and thank god they don’t see anything, but they still recommend going to an oncologist just to be sure. We go in there, and I wait in the waiting room as my wife is seen by the doctor. Given that it's an oncologist, most of the people around me have, or have had cancer, which is a situation I have never found myself in. It's sort of easy to take when it's just old people walking in, but there was one teenager in there, and a couple of people around my age. I came into this room already feeling a sense of relief for my wife, but most of these people are fighting for their lives from a disease they did nothing to deserve.
It was that moment that I thought of all the people who didn’t have the same access to care that we did. The thought of someone finding a lump where it shouldn’t, or blood where it shouldn’t be, and not having the same opportunity to get it checked out is entirely unacceptable to me. Those people experience the same feelings of hopelessness and dread that we did, only they have no straight forward avenue to get it checked out like we did. Many will just explain it away, or come up with some reasonable explanation to soothe themselves. That was the first moment I really peered through the "personal responsibility" and "free market" bullshit as it pertains to health coverage, and truly empathized with other people that were not as fortunate as me.
Our free market system, and one’s ability to compete in it, should dictate what house you live in, what car you drive, what toys you buy, etc. It should NOT dictate whether you should live or die if you get sick. Our country is better than that. The free market is too cruel and unforgiving when it’s people’s lives we are dealing with, and the only people who would disagree in my opinion are those who have never faced true adversity when it comes to their health.
edit: I should have noted that my wife got the all clear after that oncologist appointment.
If anyone ever follows my post history, you would see that I used to be the typical card carrying conservative on every issue from war to healthcare. The whole "personal responsibility" and "free market" line was the way I soothed my conscious when I was forced to ponder 50 million people without health insurance. I was raised by good parents who sent me to a good school, paid for my college, and then supported me until I got my first professional job and started carrying my own insurance. Supporting myself and being responsible came easy to me.
Fast forward several years to my mid 20's. My wife comes to me with a look of terror on her face. She was in the shower, and she noticed blood coming from one of her breasts. I of course go to WebMD, and based on my reading, find out that bleeding from the breast translates to a very high correlation with breast cancer. I try to think of everything I can to explain this away, for instance she was shaving her legs, and perhaps nicked herself with the razor. Anyways, we of course schedule an appointment with her OBGYN, which is easy because we are financially stable and insured. We have an appointment 3 days later, which is an excruciating 3 days, because I'm pretty much bracing myself for a cancer fight. She goes to the OB, they examine her breasts, and tell her she feels something that should be checked out, and sends her to radiology for a mammogram. We feel cancer is inevitable at this point. She goes in for the mammogram, and then we simply have to go home and wait for the results. I'm not a very religious man, but that night I laid in bed and prayed to god to spare my wife. I said I would give anything, and never ask for anything again.
The results come in, and thank god they don’t see anything, but they still recommend going to an oncologist just to be sure. We go in there, and I wait in the waiting room as my wife is seen by the doctor. Given that it's an oncologist, most of the people around me have, or have had cancer, which is a situation I have never found myself in. It's sort of easy to take when it's just old people walking in, but there was one teenager in there, and a couple of people around my age. I came into this room already feeling a sense of relief for my wife, but most of these people are fighting for their lives from a disease they did nothing to deserve.
It was that moment that I thought of all the people who didn’t have the same access to care that we did. The thought of someone finding a lump where it shouldn’t, or blood where it shouldn’t be, and not having the same opportunity to get it checked out is entirely unacceptable to me. Those people experience the same feelings of hopelessness and dread that we did, only they have no straight forward avenue to get it checked out like we did. Many will just explain it away, or come up with some reasonable explanation to soothe themselves. That was the first moment I really peered through the "personal responsibility" and "free market" bullshit as it pertains to health coverage, and truly empathized with other people that were not as fortunate as me.
Our free market system, and one’s ability to compete in it, should dictate what house you live in, what car you drive, what toys you buy, etc. It should NOT dictate whether you should live or die if you get sick. Our country is better than that. The free market is too cruel and unforgiving when it’s people’s lives we are dealing with, and the only people who would disagree in my opinion are those who have never faced true adversity when it comes to their health.
edit: I should have noted that my wife got the all clear after that oncologist appointment.
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