When I was in seventh grade, back in the late seventies, most of my weekends were spent at the roller rink with all the other kids my age. Ah, memories; the disco, the couples-only skate, the bad music and the bad lights. I loved it, and I was a pretty good skater most of the time, even managing to skate backwards well enough to be on the floor during the backwards-only skate.
But one lovely Saturday I was skating when an employee of the rink flew by me, fast, and he knocked my skate with his and I went flying. I thrust out my left arm to catch myself, but I was moving too hard and too fast and just like that--snap--both of the bones in my arm broke clean through.
It's funny how much I remember from that day. I remember the shock on the face of the guy who knocked me over. I remember my arm looking oddly like a floppy "z" because the hand and wrist just kind of hung there like meat off the end of my arm. I remember someone putting ice on it, and then asking them to take it off because it was too cold, and then asking them to put it back on again because looking at my broken z-shaped arm made me want to throw up.
I don't remember the ride to the hospital, but I do remember the huge Navajo nurse that hovered around me like a protective bear and how he soothed me when I saw the size of the needle they were going to put in my arm to numb it up for manipulation. I remember watching sweat running down his face as he and the doctor bent and twisted my arm back and forth until with a huge "SNAP!" the bones realigned. I even remember the happy and surprised looks on both the doctor's and the nurse's faces when they felt my arm and realized it was back in place (they really thought I'd need surgery). I remember the smell of the plaster as they put on my cast, and I remember feeling sad that I had to have a clunky white cast and I couldn't have the much cooler, brand new pink fiberglass cast.
Why couldn't I have the fiberglass? Because we didn't have insurance.
When my mom picked me up at the roller rink, her face was a study in fear. She was afraid for me and my broken arm and suffering from that horrible, helpless feeling that a mother has when her child is hurt (a feeling I understand much better now), but she was also afraid because it was clear how badly my arm was injured, and that meant hospitals, doctors, and bills bills bills.
Eventually, due to shitty record keeping and bullying bill collectors my mom ended up having to pay cash out-of-pocket for my broken arm TWICE. Unlike most insurance companies, my mom didn't have an entire department of accountants scanning invoices for double charges and billing mistakes, and she certainly didn't have a lawyer to go to her defense and keep her from paying twice. She was young, scared, and she just did the best she could.
Luckily, things are somewhat better now for poor families than they were for me and my mom. Most states now offer some sort of low-income health care benefits for children, and are actually doing a pretty good job of educating families about the availability of such programs (according to this study, only 9% of families were still unaware of the options).
But there are still big ol' holes in the system. In my state, the state-run insurance program for children is actually open to ALL uninsured children, regardless of income (those with a higher income pay a small monthly premium). But in order to qualify, the child has to have NO INSURANCE. So when we tried to sign Tori up to the state plan (at a savings of over $250 a month for the exact same plan), we were denied because we are unwilling to allow her current insurance to lapse first.
As you may of heard, President "I'm totally profile as long as the children haven't been born yet" Bush has been hoping to actually widen that gap, requiring children to remain uninsured for an entire YEAR before they qualify for these programs. He is so insistent, in fact, that he is willing to veto the current funding bill in its entirety to prove his point--leaving many states forced to cancel the program for thousands of children.
Back in 1979, my broken arm cost my mother about $1,000 (the first and second times). While my mother worked hard to keep us off welfare and stopped relying even on the meager help that food stamps provided, she still did not earn near enough to give us medical insurance. Even without my breaking any bones, I was not a cheap kid medically--I had pretty severe asthma and allergies, and was in and out of emergency rooms with asthma attacks (of course, without insurance, we were unable to work with a doctor to manage my care to decrease the frequency of attacks). Adding another $1,000 in bills to our budget nearly broke us. I shudder to think about the things my mother had to give up to pay it off--TWICE (that twice thing really galls me, can you tell?).
Does President Bush have any idea what can happen to a family whose child has no health insurance in a year? What about a child with a chronic illness, or one that requires surgery, or one who has an accident like my broken arm? You know what happens? Bankruptcy. Eviction. At the very least, a ruined credit rating--preventing the parents from buying a home, a car, or any other piece of the American dream.
I remember that fear on my mother's face all too well. It left me with scars; for years, even though I had insurance from my jobs, I waited until I was deathly ill to see a doctor. Basic health care management was beyond my comprehension until I was in my late twenties. Because I don't want Tori to ever worry in that way, Charlie and I spend about a quarter of our monthly income on medical insurance for our family, nearly $1,200 a month (more--much more--than our mortgage).
Hillary Clinton attempted to change the health care climate when her husband was president, and we all remember how well that was received. But, brave woman that she is, she is still trying to do something about it. Her new health care proposal is similar to the Massachusetts plan (in a wonderful touch of campaign irony, Mitt Romney supported the plan when he was Governor of Massachusetts, but is railing against Hillary's plan), and would help families like mine find a level of health care coverage that would be affordable and provide the coverage we need.
I know all the arguments against state-subsidized health care, and some are valid. But the problem remains that health care costs are not only bankrupting families, they are driving companies out of business--look at what is happening with the United Auto Workers and General Motors right now. Maybe if GM didn't have to worry about the constantly increasing cost of health care (at my last job, the cost to my employers went up over 25% in two years) they might re-open some factories instead of closing them all down. Who knows?
With some sort of health care support from the government--in whatever form it takes--companies will be able to hire more workers, everyone will be healthier thanks to better managed care (thus driving down the overall costs of health care), and no more mothers will have to have terror strike through their hearts each time their child is knocked down at the roller rink. Seriously, people--why don't we care enough about our children--and hell, our adults--to do this?
