When I was growing up, we were all so intimately familiar with the tragedies of the Kennedy family that they seemed an extension of our own. I am reminded of last year's Women's Conference in Long Beach, when Maria Shriver choked up while speaking about "Uncle Teddy" and his illness. I was in tears with her, and I'm very sad today.
Last month, as he lay dying of brain cancer, Senator Kennedy wrote an essay for Newsweek, an emotional plea to the country to join him in embracing "The Cause of My Life:" The fight for universal health care. It must have pained him to hear the disinformation that has been spread by the insurance lobby in recent weeks... all the talk of "death panels" and Medicare cuts and the end of health care choice... none of which can be found in the proposed bills in Congress.
I am fortunate that our family has employer-provided health insurance and that (so far!) none of us has suffered a major illness or injury. But I worry about the 47 million Americans who can't say that, and the millions more who are underinsured. And I worry about what would happen to us if my husband lost his job (along with the precious benefits that come with it). This is not one of those silly types of fears I'm prone to when I can't sleep at night. California's unemployment rate is currently 11.9% -- an all-time high -- with no end clearly in sight.
My colleagues over at MOMocrats have started a blog action called "Hear My Story" -- tales of health care horrors from ordinary people like you and me. My heart broke when I read the tale of Sophie, the little girl with the pre-existing condition. Or Woody, who needs to be fed through a tube -- and is denied payment by his family's insurers. Or Beth, who has to fight her insurance carrier while she lives with terminal cancer.
My stories are trivial in comparison: In the pursuit of keeping costs down, my husband's employer changes carriers every couple of years. The last time, we discovered that NONE of our doctors are in the new carrier's network.
I find it ironic that the opposition complains that changing the current system would leave Americans without health care choices when that is what ALREADY exists for many of us who have insurance. Sure, I'm free to go outside the system -- and I decided to do that rather than make my daughter leave the beloved pediatrician who has treated her since the day she was born. But staying with him means that we pay 70% of his fees -- AFTER we've met a $500 deductible.
I have to confess that a part of me was relieved when my daughter quit gymnastics, because I no longer have to worry about incurring any gym-related injuries. But of course, kids don't need to be performing flyaways off a high bar to get hurt... and as I look at our sad family budget, I am seriously considering changing her doctor anyway. This makes me sad... and very angry, because the ONLY reason for making a change is the fact that I have no control over who insures us. In other words, NO CHOICE in the matter... except a financial one.
My husband is also treated by an out-of-network doctor. That's because when he became ill with a mysterious fever, our primary care physician was unable to see him -- we had to wait two weeks for an appointment. So again, we chose a medical office that was convenient but not on the list and discovered that he had a very serious infection that required a massive dose of antibiotics, which was delivered intravenously. It cost us a small fortune -- but had we waited another day, the cost could have been a lot worse... he could have died.
But like I said -- we're lucky. No serious illness. No serious injury.
I shudder to think of how we'll fare if that changes.
