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My Story About Health Care
Three years ago my husband and I were very excited parents-to-be and when our son, Ethan, was born we received the shock of a lifetime. We found out that our new baby boy had a vascular tumor that covered most of his lower right leg that required chemotherapy. He started oral steroids at 6 weeks old and on my second day back to work after maternity leave, the doctors told us that his health had spiraled out of control so quickly that he would need to start chemotherapy immediately. He had to have surgery to put an external port into an artery near his heart to administer the chemotherapy because he was so small and was on codeine because the pain of his tumor was unbearable. Needless to say, he needed round-the-clock care and I had to quit my job to care for him. To make matters worse, he started his first round of chemotherapy on my husbands first day back to law school at UNC.
We had just bought our first home, we had some financial security, and felt like we were prepared for starting a family. Our plan was for me to continue to work after Ethan was born and as the primary bread-winner, quitting my job meant losing our family's only source of income and, more importantly, our health insurance. Fortunately, Ethan qualified for Medicaid due to our newly found financial situation and without this government run health insurance program, he most likely would have lost his leg, and maybe even his life. Finding insurance for me was not easy because I have chronic kidney disease and, as you can imagine, insurance companies were not exactly looking to provide us with low-cost health insurance. We were now faced with caring for a sick child, no income, and having to pay expensive insurance premiums to maintain minimal healthcare coverage.
Ethan's tumor began to heal around the time he turned 1, but that was followed by him needing over a year of physical, speech, and occupational therapy. We managed to get my husband through the rest of law school by taking student loans, draining the savings he had left from his GI Bill, and getting help from family, but in the end, we still ended up needing to sell our home and move in with my father-in-law just to keep our heads above water. Now that my little guy is healthy, now that my husband is an attorney, now that we've made it through three years of strict budgeting and sacrificing, we are STILL suffering the financial drain of private health insurance. Even though my husband has finished school and passed the bar, he still hasn't been able to find a job that offers health insurance because of the way the job market is now. I, too, have returned to the work force but have only been able to find contract positions that don't offer benefits.
I realize how fortunate we are to have the support of our extended family. Most Americans are not as fortunate. Either by design or circumstance many of them don't have family members who can financially afford to help them. What happened to us could happen to anyone. It IS happening RIGHT NOW to people all across America that are losing jobs or finding health coverage denied by insurance companies. The bottom line is, because there was a public health insurance option available to our son, he is still alive today. And, if there had been an affordable health insurance option available for my husband and me, we might still have our home. Access to basic health insurance should be available to everyone, regardless of age, income, or employment status.
We no longer can wait, as a country, to help each other during catastrophes and hard times. No one should have to choose between paying their mortgage and paying their insurance premiums. No one should have to choose between keeping their home, or caring for a loved one who is ill. No parent should have to choose between bankruptcy and the life of their child. America is better than this. We, are better than this. It is time for us to start loving our neighbors as we do ourselves and realize that a country with healthy citizens will in turn become a healthy nation.
We had just bought our first home, we had some financial security, and felt like we were prepared for starting a family. Our plan was for me to continue to work after Ethan was born and as the primary bread-winner, quitting my job meant losing our family's only source of income and, more importantly, our health insurance. Fortunately, Ethan qualified for Medicaid due to our newly found financial situation and without this government run health insurance program, he most likely would have lost his leg, and maybe even his life. Finding insurance for me was not easy because I have chronic kidney disease and, as you can imagine, insurance companies were not exactly looking to provide us with low-cost health insurance. We were now faced with caring for a sick child, no income, and having to pay expensive insurance premiums to maintain minimal healthcare coverage.
Ethan's tumor began to heal around the time he turned 1, but that was followed by him needing over a year of physical, speech, and occupational therapy. We managed to get my husband through the rest of law school by taking student loans, draining the savings he had left from his GI Bill, and getting help from family, but in the end, we still ended up needing to sell our home and move in with my father-in-law just to keep our heads above water. Now that my little guy is healthy, now that my husband is an attorney, now that we've made it through three years of strict budgeting and sacrificing, we are STILL suffering the financial drain of private health insurance. Even though my husband has finished school and passed the bar, he still hasn't been able to find a job that offers health insurance because of the way the job market is now. I, too, have returned to the work force but have only been able to find contract positions that don't offer benefits.
I realize how fortunate we are to have the support of our extended family. Most Americans are not as fortunate. Either by design or circumstance many of them don't have family members who can financially afford to help them. What happened to us could happen to anyone. It IS happening RIGHT NOW to people all across America that are losing jobs or finding health coverage denied by insurance companies. The bottom line is, because there was a public health insurance option available to our son, he is still alive today. And, if there had been an affordable health insurance option available for my husband and me, we might still have our home. Access to basic health insurance should be available to everyone, regardless of age, income, or employment status.
We no longer can wait, as a country, to help each other during catastrophes and hard times. No one should have to choose between paying their mortgage and paying their insurance premiums. No one should have to choose between keeping their home, or caring for a loved one who is ill. No parent should have to choose between bankruptcy and the life of their child. America is better than this. We, are better than this. It is time for us to start loving our neighbors as we do ourselves and realize that a country with healthy citizens will in turn become a healthy nation.
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