Universal health care is something that strikes very close to home for me and does somewhat conflict with my libertarian side. Specifically, "Obamacare" as it has been labeled and will likely always be known as, unofficially, was one of the greatest political accomplishments of the last 30 years and it was like a beacon of hope for me and many others out there who get tossed around by the nation's healthcare and insurance system. I have been unfortunate enough to have been born with a condition/conditions that I have very little control over and that have a mildly indirect affect on other areas of my health. I was, however, fortunate to have been born to two good caring parents whose insurance covered me long after other policies and companies would have dropped me based on my age. It is most certain that one of the reasons I stayed in school until now, as I am 27, is because I spent more time than I would have liked undecided and another 2 years as a social work major that, in the end, I determined was not what I wanted to do with my life but there are other factors, one of the biggest of which is the fact that as long as I was a student, I could keep my parents insurance and therefore continue to receive medication to treat my lifelong condition. At times, this meant taking out student loans to stay in classes I didn't need because there was no other way to pay for my medications and regular doctor visits. Now that I finally hit the wall with being able to extend said coverage, the reality of how much my medical costs actually are has hit me. Prior to this, it did not take much for me to get by on. My student loans have yet to kick in, I share a house with 2 cousins, one of their boyfriends and another roommate and that essentially keeps my monthly budget between $400 and $500, which is pretty fantastic considering. This does not include the copays and reduced cost of medications my parents were paying for which amounted to about $90 a month at worse, but often closer to $50. After having only tallied up what my medications will cost me and one of the two doctors I visit, each month will cost me closer to $300. Specifically, my medications will cost $178. Now, I realize as far as lifelong conditions go, that this isn't a terribly big amount to be paying, but it is still over half my budget, which is money I cannot pay. The reason I know such specific figures isn't because I suddenly had to start paying them, but because I knew what was coming and responsibly took measures to work my way out of it. There are certain options available via my parents insurance company that would have transferred me to a new insurance policy that my parents could still pay for. This would have cost them more money each month but still less than what it would cost for my medications and appointments. While we were waiting to be approved, we were told to go ahead and just have the doctors bill us and then the company would reimburse my parents for the cost. Then about a week into the new year I received a letter from the company saying I was denied coverage because of a preexisting condition. This was devastating, on top of the likely considerable student loan payments I will have to be paying starting a few months from now, I will have pay out a significantly larger amount for healthcare that I need to simply function in society. This all happened as I was paying very close attention to the republican political climate and the rabid desire to repeal "Obamacare" and in particular the ideology of Ron Paul would would gut the government and lay waste to everything that propelled this country to its current standing in the world. For the first time in my life I went to bed terrified for what the political future might bring. I am facing the very serious decision of having to give up my medication because I simply cannot afford it. This represents a downward spiral that I have seen hit me a few times in the past. To get this medication, I need to work to earn money, but to work and earn money, I need this medication. If one falls through, so does the other and the likelihood of recovering at any reasonable rate is much lower. Without a job, the student loans will come due, I will have to move back to my parents and break my lease with my cousins, who I care about very much, leaving them with higher bills if they can even stay. When I can't pay my loans, which my Dad is a co-signer on, my credit rating, which is actually really really good, will tank and my parents cannot afford to pay the loans on top of their own bills. I can see no positive end to the situation unless I find a job, and any insurance policy I get through a job will likely turn me down as well.
I understand why people don't like the idea of universal healthcare, people don't like being on the hook for others problems, but there is so much more to the issue than that. There are proven facts about universal health care that are subtle but benefit everyone in the long run, making health care cheaper overall allowing more people to thrive. In principle I despise the idea of a mandate, but in the end it works out better for everyone. It has been shown that the more people that are in the health insurance pool, the cheaper the costs are for everyone all around. Additionally, by shifting the focus to preventative health care, costs also go down because it has been shown that treating many more serious, expensive conditions are much more costly in the long run than paying for the preventative care, as is sort of the case with my health problems. Currently there are systems available to people with pre-existing conditions, offered by various states or, when not offered, are offered by the federal government, but these are still rather expensive. As it is, insurance companies are still allowed to turn people down. If you are turned down, you must wait a certain period of time before you can change to the state plans, in my case, 6 months. This will be the case until 2014. I just hope I can survive until then.
The idea of a Ron Paul presidency, and to a lesser extend, putting a Republican into power, never used to bother me on such a personal level. I knew that there were systems in place that prevented a lot of what the candidates talk about doing and that generally, as my generation gets older, opinions of the older generation, which tend to be more rigid, would die off and things would get better. Now I see what the Republicans propose and it terrifies me. It threatens to rip away my future, a future that was already tainted by the fact I have to live with my conditions for the rest of my life and the medications I take will also gradually damage my body as well. I wish more people understood the bleak future myself and many others face.
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