So I have graduated college and have started working, which I will do until I enter medical school. One of the interesting things about this is that I have no health insurance. Why? Because I honestly cannot afford it. I can't afford health insurance. I cannot afford to get sick. I cannot afford to get injured. I cannot afford to get preventive care.
This infuriates me. I am disgusted that I have to actually say these things. I live in arguably the most advanced, democratic, and rich nation in the world and I cannot afford to see a doctor. If I get really sick, I could die because I cannot afford to live. Sure one day I will make enough to pay for insurance and health care, but right now I can't. I simply can't afford medical bills. Have I emphasized this enough, I can't afford to see a doctor when I'm sick.
Just recently our brand new roommate who currently works at a old folk's home got really sick. It had been a few days, but he couldn't afford to see the doctor. Eventually this all culminated in one horrible, and I mean horrible, night where he puked his guts out and, literally, was scared for his life. He, as it so sadly happens in America, was brought to the emergency room and discovered a simple throat infection had spread to around his stomach. He was prescribed antibiotics and eventually recovered.
Is this how health care should work for the poor? Do I need to "chance it" every time I get ill and then go to the emergency room once I am close to death? Really, is this how America's beautiful spirit of free markets and capitalism is supposed to bless my life and lives of those who work at the cash register, the factory, and many other occupations?
Don't you punk republican BYU Marriot School accounting majors get it? Free markets have this inability to "bless" everyone. Apple Computers does not make money making their products accessible to everyone, it makes money by balancing supply and demand. Think back to your Economics 110 class and think about what happens as demand goes up, and think about this: Some estimates project America is in need of 40, 00 more physicians... NOW.
In addition, insurance companies' bottom line is making money. Despite the crap we here in the commercials, they can only exist if they make money, and just like any good corporation their survival depends on making profit NOT helping me or the third, THE THIRD, of Americans who simply can not afford health insurance. Is this really how you want to deliver health care? Like a television, or a toaster.
