Health Insurance Reform

Obama held a press conference on his new health care proposals today. I watched it because I have a vested interest and I think Obama is a good president - even if he wasn't born in the United States.

You don't think about how important health care is until you don't have it. When I left my job, I had no idea I wouldn't be able to find insurance again. I came from a financially-secure family, so it was never a concern for me.

My problem is that I have a wonky jaw. I pursued it while on insurance, only to be told a few months later that there was really nothing that could be done about it, so they simply wished me luck with my broken life. When I tried to reapply for insurance, every company was like, "Um, you're damaged goods, piss off." It didn't matter that I was told I couldn't be treated for my problem, I was still at risk. Insurance is for people who don't get sick or injured. Insurance is for profit.

Case in point, I know of someone who also couldn't obtain health insurance after switching jobs because he got prescription ointment for jock itch. It probably only cost about $20, but he chose to use his health insurance to pay for that for him, so no company was going to risk covering someone who had the nerve to file a claim from time to time. They labeled jock itch a "pre-existing condition."

As for me, I can't even throw enough money at a company to be willing to cover me. Right now I am on catastrophic coverage, which means if I am lucky enough to get brain cancer, I'll be covered after I pay a $5,000 deductible. Heaven forbid anything minor occur, because then I'm shit-out-of-luck.

As I see it, anyone who is opposed to health care reform is either too rich, healthy, or plain lucky to know why the current system sucks so much. We can't guarantee "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" if we allow people to ail and die.

I don't have the solution, and I'm not even yet sure that Obama has the perfect solution, but it's several steps in the right direction. We can reform it more from there. But to leave people without any options in case of an emergency, that's reprehensible.

And if you have a problem with adding more competition to the market so that maybe companies will feel pressured not to simply drop someone for daring to ask for a fraction of the money they've put in over the years, then I hate you. I hate you so much that I hope you get polio and try to go to a doctor, only to find out they won't help you because, in some loophole, they say they don't cover outdated diseases, and you just suffer and go into debt thereafter.

And shhhhh. Don't tell the conservatives this, but how great will it be to have health insurance again? I'll probably have some MRIs just for fun! And I can finally get implants. Their tax dollars will pay for my breast enhancements. I'll get 'em so big they give me chronic back problems, but who cares, I won't be paying for that either! Maybe I'll even qualify for medical marijuana. Who am I kidding? Of course I'll qualify for medical marijuana. Obama will smoke me out himself.