Life Without Health Insurance

Like 47 million of my fellow Americans, I live without health insurance. I have a part-time job to supplement my self-employment, and the employer-sponsered plan would cost more than my monthly mortgage payment to cover my husband and myself. So far my lucky penny and a nightly prayer have warded off most illnesses and injuries, but it is an eternal truth that shit happens, and sometimes it happens to us.

Though I pride myself on resourcefulness, there is really no substitute for professional health care; not that I haven't tried. Got a weird rash? Take an oatmeal bath, or break open an aloe leaf, and apply the gel. Menstrual cramps that won't quit? Yoga and raspberry leaf tea ought to help. Insomnia? Try chamomile. My husband suffers from a recurrant back pain at times so severe that he is immobilized. He has tried to learn and avoid the kinds of motion that might trigger it, but sometimes it strikes anyway. The last time he lay supine and paralyzed with pain, I drove across town to a creepy tenament building where, it was said, one could purchase prescription painkillers. I expect the ususal clients did not put them to their intended use; I found a black humor in the fact that I was there to illegally purchase painkillers, to do nothing other than kill pain, just as the doctor would have ordered had there been a doctor involved.

We often rely on Doctor Google to diagnose our symptoms, a notoriouly fallible method, and one likely to offer diagnoses on a multiple choice plan. I am currently suffering from pain in one shoulder (it was both, but the right has improved. A good sign!) and a loss of perhaps half my range of motion. I can't raise my arm above shoulder height, or reach behind my back. Doc G says it could be osteoarthritis, but it came on rather suddenly. Or it could be bursitis, but I don't remember an injury. It could also be tendinitis, rotator cuff injury, adhesive capsulitis, and loss of joint cartilage. I choose to call it B) bursitis, but that's just a guess. Arthritis sounds too scary, and the others need explantion if you use them in conversation. I am treating it with glucosamine chondroitin, on a pharmacist's recommendation, and with massage, ice, and an abundance of caution. I also quit wearing clothes that zip or button in the back, and cut my shoulder length hair up to my ears, because I couldn't take care of it well enough with just one hand.  

Is this ridiculous? Yes, of course. Possibly stretching could help, but it might also make it worse, seeing as I don't know what the problem is. A cortisone shot might fix it right up, but that would probably involve at least three visits to at least two doctors, as well as a big pile of testing, and physical therapy, all of which is out of the question economically. 

One of the scare stories I have heard arguing why we should not have government funded health care was an anecdote about a woman in Canada who had to wait a year to see her specialist. Oh, a year, huh? Well, a year doesn't sound too bad if the other choice is never. The other point I hear brought up is that people want to choose their doctors. There's no reason why a government funded program should prevent that, but the argument irks me, while there are still so many people who aren't free to see any doctor at all, never mind one of their choosing. 

I am eager to hear the details of the President's plan for health care, although he has already stated it is not a single-payer plan, which I would have preferred. So far I have heard a lot of naysaying and resistance but nobody seems to have a plan. The alternative plan seems to be the status quo: Can't afford health insurance? Gee, sucks to be you.