Healthcare Reform: Failure is not an option!

Perhaps the most difficult thing about living with a chronic medical condition in this country is the rising cost of healthcare. I have never counted myself among those less fortunate who do not have health insurance (with the exception of my first few weeks at UW due to a bureaucratic snafu). Yet, the financial fall-out associated with all of the charges my current and previous insurance carriers refused to cover makes it very difficult to maintain even the most basic standard of living on a grad student stipend (which is more than adequate for everyone else).

My current monthly payments for past medical expenses come to just under $400 per month. Add to that this month's unexpected healthcare costs (again, items that my insurance wouldn't cover) of $487 and that's more than half my take-home pay before I even get to covering rent, food, and utilities! Millions of Americans are confronted by this reality each day and there is little doubt that the stress which results from having to live this way exacerbates their symptoms. How are people supposed to be able to take care of themselves when they are forced to choose between housing, food and healthcare? Most of us associate senior citizens with this plight but medical debt favors no one demographic over others.

One third of young adults are currently uninsured in this country. Although they are the least likely to become seriously ill or injured, readers don't have to look any further than the borders of this blog for an example of a young adult who became seriously ill after two decades of good health (who gets pancreatic tumors at 22?). If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. Most people unfortunate enough to get sick as young adults are forced to file for bankruptcy simply because they are too old to have anyone else bear the burden of their financial obligations and too young to have accumulated the level of savings required to insulate themselves from financial ruin (on entry-level wages, no less).

It's looking less and less likely that true healthcare reform is on the way. I sincerely doubt that a bunch of fat-cat politicians in Washington have the capacity to understand just how urgent this issue is and how it will benefit this nation as a whole. People with chronic illnesses are not deadweight and no one is looking for a handout. It is impossible to measure how much productivity and homegrown talent is lost to the overwhelming cost of healthcare. How many people are forced to put their lives on hold even after they recover from illness because they cannot recoup the costs of their medical bills? Medical debt is, by far, the leading cause of bankruptcy in this country. How can we justify playing Russian Roulette with our collective future like this? I think anything less than swift, decisive action is simply unforgivable. This country needs affordable healthcare now!