Misc, Various

Financial situation: I am an employed member of American society. I work hard when I can get jobs in my field, and when none are available, I temp. It's not glamorous but it's work and I'm glad to have it. Unfortunately, on the wages I earn I could afford either rent or insurance premiums, but not both. Needless to say, I don't live in a tent.

So. As one of the 47 million Americans who are uninsured or insufficiently-insured, I feel that current events affect me rather a lot. Far more, indeed, than the gun-waving fanatics at town hall meetings or the wealthy lobbyists and "news" anchors who sent them there.

Let's look at me, as a demographic, for a moment. I'm 24, single, and not a parent. I hold a BA in a liberal art and am embarking, in just over a month, upon an MA. I'm a skilled carpenter and rigger and have a good work ethic. I type 90 words per minute and have been described as an ideal employee by my temp agency for having the simple sellable skill of courtesy. (Indeed, shouting at Sallie Mae representatives was not easy for me.) I actively pursue regular employment and speak and write in English.

Am I what you envision when you think of the 47 million Americans scraping by without access to health care?

For the past four years I have found myself working very hard for next to nothing in internships and assistantships around the country in order to make connections in a field that is rapidly collapsing upon itself because it costs more to produce than patrons are willing to pay.

In 2008 I earned just enough money to not qualify for Medicaid but far too little to afford private insurance, even when I itemized my student loan repayments and living expenses. Guess where that left me. (one moment while I find my Hiker's Guide to Shit Creek and a highlighter)

Interestingly, I do have some medical concerns that I would absolutely love to have addressed, but most if not all of them would not be covered by a basic health plan at the best of times. A chunk of my retina has detached and is freewheeling around the vitreous fluid in one of my eyes. My teeth, which have always chipped when I so much as eat yoghurt, are in a bad state and one of the lower incisors may need to be completely replaced. My face is a raging bacterial infection that is not only immune to benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid but is made red, scaly, and painful by even small amounts of either.

Are any of these concerns life-threatening? Probably not. But even if my vital organs are in pretty good nick, I still need some work. Yes, technically I can survive blind in one eye and missing a few teeth, but if I can avoid these problems I'd prefer it--particularly in the job field that I seek. I'd be hard-pressed to find someone who makes a comfortable wage in a white-collar environment who got into their job with gaping holes in their smile, a face that's downright icky, and severely compromised vision. There are probably people out there who've managed it, but even if company policy prohibits it, interviewers take things like appearance into consideration. While broken teeth don't actually indicate personal dental neglect and acne isn't a real sign of poor hygiene, appearances mean quite a lot when it comes to gaining employment. I keep my clothes clean and rarely carry an offensive odor, but due to genuine medical issues that I can't afford to correct, I look like a slob. Would you hire me?

The thing that really baffles me about people's aversion from socialized (or social-lite) health care is the fact that so many of these people would, if asked, concede that they're being rooked by their (shudder) premiums and they know it. (the word Premium grosses me out, not unlike the word Moist) Yes, we the people know that insurance is by its very definition an act of extortion that we buy into in order to feel safe. "I'm paying you to help me out in the event that I get sick, because on some subconscious level I believe that if I give enough money to the right people I won't get sick, I won't get hurt, I'll get in to Heaven, and I'll be happy and safe." I'm accepting your money under the condition that you don't get sick, because when it comes down to it I have no more idea as to what lies after death than you do, even movie stars get hit by cars, and absolutely nothing buys happiness." We all know that taking out an insurance policy is gambling and selling insurance requires fraud, but decent, intelligent people do both.

And if it wasn't for the profit side of insurance, it really would be an entity purely established for the greater good. Everyone pays into the pot so that in the eventuality that someone does get hurt or sick, there's money available to fix them. Insurance Is socialism. Or is on paper. In the US it's more of a Ponzi scheme, and those who are most likely to need it don't get it because that would force the companies to actually use the money they've worked so hard to collect.

I and others have explained this concept to many Americans and found the principle dashed against the wall, not through intelligent rebuttals, but with the simple phrase "I've got mine, I don't care about you." Many people seem to believe that when they pay their insurance premium they're just paying the company for the right to have them pay out, apparently from their assholes, in the event that they need medical attention. The idea that they're using money from other people's premiums, in addition to their own, doesn't quite dawn upon them. So a more accurate phrase to describe their state of insurance is "I've got yours and mine, but I don't care about you." And who are the yous? Millions of people who are just as likely to get H1N1, drive off a bridge, doze off while making toast, drink themselves jaundiced, and develop diabetes as oneself. The people who can't afford health insurance under the current plan are typically, if anything, more likely to take care of themselves simply because they know there's no safety net. (That doesn't mean we don't need it, don't want it, or are too good for it. We're just forced to be somewhat more aware when we're crossing the street by the crippling fear of even more debt.) We're mostly employed, 'cos otherwise we'd probably qualify for Medicaid and wouldn't be in this bind.

A question I have, for any reader who may stumble across this--are you really happy with your insuranace? I've heard on the news that millions upon millions of Americans like their insurance the way it is, but I have never actually met one of these people. Everyone I know has been alarmed to find that their premium has been hiked out of their affordable range after they've gotten hurt, or has been rejected for necessary surgery because their doctor improperly filed a form, or has found that, because their company switches insurers every six months, they've had to start from scratch with new doctors every time their kid's reflux disorder has flared up. Not once have I heard out of anyone's mouth that they are at all happy with the service they've received. "well of course, if they're talking about it it means they're unhappy with it--that's not an accurate representation." Yeah, but I know a lot of people, and a lot of them complain about it. This isn't a peer-reviewed study. So please. Let me know if you are happy with what you have.

I'm willing to pay into a system that I can afford. I am unable and unwilling to pay into a system that punishes me for going at it alone, that pockets 20 cents of every dollar I throw in, and that knowingly rejects people from the pool who might use it. These are the same people who rejected homeowners' insurance claims after Katrina because the roof blew off after the water level rose to the second story, not before. The people who wouldn't pay for an arborist to safely remove a dead tree but instead waited until it fell and smashed the roof to tell us that they weren't going to pay for the damage because their records showed we knowingly had a dead tree near the house. For-profit insurance does not reward good companies, it allows all companies to be shitheads. And they are. Remove the profitability, remove the shareholders, remove the greed and the sticky-fingered hold on policyholders' cash and you get affordable insurers who are willing to do their jobs. You're paying them to responsibly dole out everyone's collective funds to people who need it, and while they do that to an extent, they charge you far more than they will ever put into that pot.

That profit margin is the difference between me affording to join and my application being rejected due to insufficient funds. I take the risk--a risk that, in the event that something horrible does happen to me, will hurt you in the long run if I wind up being hospitalized. I can't afford hospital bills. No one can. So I'm going to take out a loan to pay the hospital, and when I lose my home (and thereby my job and my ability to get another one) because I can't afford the interest, i'm going to default. No matter how much the collection agency harasses me and hurts my feelings, it would take a thousand years for me to pay them back. which hurts the economy, and your bank with it. Ooh fun, higher interest rates for everyone! Because I got excluded for being poor. Is it fair to you, as someone who can afford it? No. Would you rather I just get a cheap lethal injection if I survive a nasty train accident with eight broken bones? Many Americans would say yes.

American insurance is the only industry I know of in which the point is to pay a lot for absolutely nothing.