Healthcare "Debate" 2017 March

You have no idea how much this healthcare "debate" is bothering me. It's probably because I've had some experience over the last ten years with my own healthcare.

I will admit, I did not think much about my healthcare over the first five decades of my life, beyond trying to live a healthy lifestyle, watching what I ate, taking vitamins and supplements, and getting some exercise. Thank God, I was pretty healthy. What I didn't have was health insurance to take care when anything went wrong.

The big problem came in 2008, when I was diagnosed with colon cancer and had to face it without insurance. I didn't have it because I couldn't afford the crummy insurance my company was offering me, but truth be known, their policy wouldn't have paid for it anyway. Thank God, I came through it, and became a cancer survivor. However, the financial burden I incurred has seriously affected my life over the nine years since.

Between 2008 and now, I have been uninsured, had crummy company insurance, had Obamacare, had Obamacare-comparable company insurance, and have finally made it to Medicare, the very best of all. My crummy company insurance wouldn't pay for my cancer checkups at Perlman. or vein work in my legs giving me a good chance of a clot forming and travelling to my heart. Obamacare paid the hospital portion of my colonoscopy with no copay, but my doctor wasn't part of the network, and I'm still paying him off. Going back to company insurance because they had good dental insurance rolled into it, they were not going to pick up a CT scan I needed to get, deductible, you know, and I was on the hook for over $3500 out of pocket. I don't have that kind of money. I make less than $20,000 a year. (At this point, I would like to say that over the last nine years, I payed thousands of dollars on my health care bills. A significant portion of my year income.)

I finally made it to Medicare, and I am needing it. I have been diagnosed with cancer again, and need to have surgery again to root it out. My portion will be a reasonable and manageable part of my income. This is what healthcare should be in America, and why I advocate Medicare For All.