Okay, another blog not about the history of Cambridge, or cultural differences, or even somewhere else I visited. I know, I know. I’m being a bad travel guide. The longer I live here, the more this feels like just another place that I live. The shiny is starting to wear off the fact that sometimes I study in things that look like castles, and real life is settling back in, and settling back in hard.
Over the last week or so quite a few of my friends have been posting about how the Affordable Care Act has been impacting them, good and bad. “Obamacare” as it is more popularly known officially becomes a thing in it’s most visible format (required insurance, and guaranteed care) Jan. 1, 2014. The ride to this point has been a rough one. Since barely surviving the disaster that is the Congress of the United States in 2009 and 2010, the law has been gutted to a degree. That said, it’s key provisions remain intact. All Americans must have health coverage--of one kind or another--medicaid can be expanded to include far more low income folks, that coverage cannot be denied or revoked when your health insurance carrier finds out you've been diagnosed with cancer, lifetime care caps are a thing of the past and the 80/20 rule means that 80% of your premium actually goes to delivering you care.
The roughly 40,000 Americans that from a variety of reports found on the CDC to CNN to the BBC, we know are dying every year because they lack basic health care, get diagnosed too late, or can’t go to a hospital until it’s too severe to treat, are going to start living longer, healthier lives. Some big businesses will pay higher taxes if they choose not to insure employees, and many people who purchase private health insurance will either see a spike in the cost of their current insurance policy, or have to shop around to find a new policy that they prefer in their original price range. So-called "disaster policies" are a thing of the past. Your health insurance now actually covers health, not just a portion of your care after a catastrophic accident. I, according to facebook, know a lot of people whose policies are being impacted. And let me tell you. They are pissed.
If I were still at home, would I be? Maybe. My old health insurance---the health insurance I carried since birth, funded through college, into which I poured tens of thousands of dollars, about 1/12th of my working income during my total adult life--would have doubled. I would have had to have gone back to the calculator, figured out how to make it work, and then scrambled to find the money. Because as an asthmatic, once I lost that policy, I would never be able to get insurance through a private policy again. Never that is, until now.
The fact that Obamacare was being implemented before I would finish my degree and return to the United States opened the door to me to attend the University of Cambridge. To say yes to an opportunity that I believe may greatly enhance what I can do for the world in the short time I get to be a part of this world. I will go home, and I will buy insurance. I’ll pick something I can afford that covers my inhaler. I will not be charged more simply for being female, and most importantly, no one will send my form back with the phrase “denied” stamped across the front of the letter. No one will explain to me that their corporate profit margin is more important than my ability to continue to breathe, and no one will take away that coverage after I’ve paid for it because they as a company changed their mind about their ability to insure me.
The fear of going without coverage will never dominate my life again. That was my world. I bought employment flexibility by pouring money into a secondary health insurance. I bought security of mind by never being a day late, by buying top ramen and rice, and riding my bicycle to work so that in the pre-Obamacare world I would always know I had the healthcare I needed to continue to be a productive member of society. I delayed graduate school, and worked a minimum of two jobs at a time. All because I wanted to be healthy enough to contribute.
Yes. Some people will have to change. Yes. Some policies will cost more. No. That’s not going to last forever. No, that's not necessarily a bad thing even if it's scaring you. Obamacare is designed to reign in health care costs over the long run by reducing emergency room visits, upping the health of our population as a whole, so we’re catching disease earlier, and treating it when it’s cheaper to treat. Obamacare is designed to extend all our lifetimes. And I won’t lie, if you have been so lucky to have never had to ask yourself what you would do without insurance. So lucky to have never watched a loved one struggle with a company for life-saving treatment. So lucky to think that the worst possible thing is an increase in insurance rates from one year to the next if you’re unwilling to change policies, then I would ask you to take off those rose colored glasses and take a look around.
Almost 50 million Americans are getting insurance for the first time. Millions of others are like me, and are experiencing the freedom to take risks, go to school to become more qualified, apply for new jobs, that we never could have taken when our lives were governed by an insurance policy. And try to remember, skeptics that you may be, that the day may come yet when you or a loved one is lying in a hospital bed, thanking their lucky stars, because without Obamacare, their treatment would have been denied, they would have hit their lifetime cap of care, or you might have just been eliminated from a policy, and weren’t, because Obamacare protected you--the consumer, and you, the American, and you the Human Being--because you have value and the value of a human life and opportunity should not be weighed against corporate profit and found lacking.
Even if, lets say, you NEVER would have had to have faced any of that because you are just so damn lucky, you will still be better off in a nation whose economy benefits froma healthier workforce, whose children grow up well, whose people don't live in fear, and can take this opportunity to better themselves, start businesses, take risks because they are not tied to a single employer for a single policy. You will benefit, and even if you can't see it now, you will benefit directly.
Yes, it’s easy for me to see that because I am a immediate beneficiary. Yes, it sucks to pay a little more each month for something you are required by law to buy. Yes, sometimes it sucks to not be totally self-focused, and selfish about an industry such as healthcare. Having to think about the nation as a whole, and people who aren't as well off as you is difficult. And yes, Obamacare will change America. I honestly can’t wait. As a citizen of the most inequal society that has ever existed, it’s nice to breathe the fresh air of a little change.
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