I really only know what's happening to the Americans that I know, and I seem to know a lot of people from a variety of socio-economical backgrounds.
Some have wealthy parents or good jobs, and never had to think too much about money. Others might still have good jobs, yet be buried in credit card debt, watching their savings dwindle, or have no main job, yet be working three or four side jobs just to get by. Still others have lost their jobs, and their homes due to foreclosure. Some have moved in with their parents; other are living with roommates.
Yesterday my mom sent me a link to a newsletter that she was featured in from a D.C. organization that provides financial assistance to defray the high costs of prescription medications for the growing number of underinsured in our country who are dealing with difficulties that they never could have predicted. I didn't even know she received assistance from PAN, or what it was, or that she wrote a testimonial, though when I read her story I tried to take the fact I was her daughter out of it, and see her as a hardworking, employed-until-recently widowed 63-year old woman that just needed to find a way to pay for her medication that relieved the pain caused by arthritis.
How can anyone afford $600 per month on medication on top of already high costs for COBRA?
Sure, you can just opt out and be one of the 24 million, and growing Americans that doesn't have any health insurance at all, or you can go broke figuring out a way to be insured, or you can just live with debilitating pain, or in some very tragic cases even die from lack of insurance at the age of 22 like this Ohio college graduate who put off going to the doctor b/c she did not have health insurance. If you're determined, and informed, you can take the time to apply for grants and assistance as my mom did, buried in paperwork, and constantly calling this person or that person to get a reference note, or a letter written, and then of course following it up with her notes of heartfelt thanks that might not be worded like a writer's, yet nevertheless convey her sense of sincerity, and gratitude.
So, that's what we are- grateful to organizations, that if we know the ropes around we can ultimately do the hard work of navigating the appropriate channels to find the assistance that we need through these agencies, and then move on so others who are experiencing greater amounts of need than us can be helped. How many people, though, are suffering from extremely painful arthritis right now, or other ailments, but not battling the paperwork like my mom, or reaching out? How many feel undeserving of assistance, or too ashamed to ask for it? How many are embarrassed to admit that they are facing hard times?
Every day in America, and in my neighborhood I see people working their asses off, people that could work 24 hours a day at the rate they're going, and still not be able to financially recover from a surgery, a long illness, or even a visit to the emergency room. Are these people not entitled to the right to have health insurance coverage? Is my mother who raised two children, and worked full-time for decades, and contributed to her community not worthy of being fully covered?
Our government's interdependence with pharmaceutical industries is an unhealthy pre-existing condition. Why aren't we focusing on treating that, instead of why all of our people aren't all deserving of coverage?
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