Back in 2004, after being laid off in an en masse budget conscious move, I lost my health insurance. I was given the option of maintaining it through COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, for those unfamiliar with the jargon), but even getting my former group's group rate for health insurance was out of range for me to pay. It also turned out that I made too little to pay for even the poorest health insurance coverage money could buy while on unemployment and made too much on unemployment to qualify for Medicaid. This between a rock and a hard place existence continued while I was underemployed in several part time jobs and then working in a full time temporary position and another part time job simultaneously. If I had lived a financially pristine, never put anything on the pretty plastic card lifestyle prior to becoming a Dept. of Labor unemployment statistic, I wouldn't have had a problem. Didn't do that, though, so for two years, I lived on good health and a prayer. During that time, I saw my primary care providers twice and had to pay for the visits piecemeal each time. They were incredibly understanding. No routine exams, no consults, no testing of any kind, and only the two more urgent, non-critical events that warranted the doling out of cash in small amounts that I really didn't have.
I know I'm not unique in this situation. There are those who were and still are without health insurance. Too many. They fell through the cracks like I did, making too little money to pay for their own and too much money to qualify for assistance. Health insurance costs are frightening, especially when not making enough to make ends meet already. People take their chances, hoping that illnesses and accidents don't happen. I was fortunate in that I only had two things come up that I decided needed more attention than my medicine cabinet and I could handle. Not everyone is that lucky, though.
This is turning into a tirade, tilting at the health insurance industry's reinforced windmills. Shall leave that fight to those more qualified. Now in a permanent position again, I have health insurance. I saw my nurse practitioner earlier this week for the first physical I've had in two years and she ordered some tests that are overdue by medical standards, including bloodwork and a mammogram. She also referred me to have the infamous "age appropriate" colonoscopy; she may not see the results of that any time soon, though. I feel safer in a way I haven't for some time. Free to fall and trip, free to shovel heavy snow so much that it's hard to tell what's causing the chest pain, free to take another tumble off my back roof, free to go out into the woods and pick up a few deer ticks, free to be in the presence of someone with chicken pox and inhale deeply (it's passed by droplets in the air and by touching, and nope, never had them). Okay, maybe not, but I really do feel just a wee bit safer.
Being not all that far away from my 50th birthday, I recognize that the need for health care may increase unexpectedly and exponentially at any time and that without any health insurance, recovery has a price tag that can lead to ruin. I'm happy to finally be back in the land of the health insurance card carrier, but my heart returns to those who aren't that fortunate. Single with no dependents or married with a family to support, it's all the same when the medical bills start to pile up.
I feel that tirade coming on again. Maybe I need to learn to tilt at windmills.
