Personally…
This requires a little backstory. At the beginning of the year, hubby had a decent full time job that paid enough that we qualified for the ACA. We found the goddamn Chupacabra of health insurance plans that, with the rebate from the ACA, cost us $40 a month in premiums, and allowed my husband to get his $400 prescription asthma medicine for $8. So, basically, $48 a month to allow him to breathe.
Well, because of Reasons, he doesn’t have that job anymore, and we’re probably going to be in some kind of deep shit come tax time because we now don’t make enough money, but if we tell them that now, we will lose the asthma medicine and he won’t be able to work at all what with the not being able to breathe thing.
A few months ago, my son developed a tooth abscess. He is covered by Medicaid, but there’s only one dentist in the area that treats Medicaid patients. They refused to set an appointment closer than a month and a half out. I took him to the emergency room and they basically handed me some antibiotics and said “see a dentist”. That worked for about a week, and the infection sprang back up. He was in extreme pain and his face was terribly swollen. It was the charity of a friend that got him into a dentist before he ended up with a bloodborne illness and died.
On top of that, I’ve had a sneaking suspicion for a long time that I’m developing arthritis – probably rheumatoid arthritis. I’ve had chronic pain in my feet since I was a child. A few years ago I started getting carpal- and cubital tunnel symptoms, and now my shoulders are starting in on me. I wake up daily to a series of cracks and pops that rival Rice Krispies and for the first time it’s taking me a while (sometimes an hour or more) to get out of bed due to pain and fatigue.
I am actually afraid to go to the doctor because I know once I get diagnosed with something the ACA insurance is going to disappear due to being low income and I will know I have a condition that I can’t afford to treat.
Who is the scariest politician?
The ones that are keeping healthcare a privilege of the wealthy.