![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Or, why I agree with the following statement. Perhaps this makes me a socialist commie-symp-pinko-liberal who is devoted to destroying America, but you know what? I am one of those people who would be completely, utterly, 100% uninsurable in most of this country if I didn't have insurance through my employer. It doesn't matter that my skull tumor is benign. It doesn't matter that it's stable. It doesn't matter that there are no known risk factors outside of a genetic disease that I don't have, and that I could not have prevented it.
What matters is that it exists. And because it exists, and because I need a 45 minute long MRI once a year to make sure it's still stable, I cannot open my own business. I cannot go freelance. I cannot work for a small employer that does not offer benefits. There is a distinct possibility that I may not be employable in many states because my mere presence would drive insurance rates past the breaking point for many companies.
The health care situation in this country would not tolerated in any other developed country in the world. Perhaps it's not fair that the taxes of the many should go to the care of the few, but neither is the share of my property taxes that will go to a high school that my non-existent children will never attend. It is in my best interest as a citizen of Easthampton that a new school be built, and it is in my best interest as a citizen of the United States that all of my fellow citizens have access to health care when they need it, without having to sell their homes, divorce their spouses, or lose their jobs because they can't afford the bills.
So yes. I agree with the meme:
No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick.
Matthew 25:31-46 still applies.
What matters is that it exists. And because it exists, and because I need a 45 minute long MRI once a year to make sure it's still stable, I cannot open my own business. I cannot go freelance. I cannot work for a small employer that does not offer benefits. There is a distinct possibility that I may not be employable in many states because my mere presence would drive insurance rates past the breaking point for many companies.
The health care situation in this country would not tolerated in any other developed country in the world. Perhaps it's not fair that the taxes of the many should go to the care of the few, but neither is the share of my property taxes that will go to a high school that my non-existent children will never attend. It is in my best interest as a citizen of Easthampton that a new school be built, and it is in my best interest as a citizen of the United States that all of my fellow citizens have access to health care when they need it, without having to sell their homes, divorce their spouses, or lose their jobs because they can't afford the bills.
So yes. I agree with the meme:
No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick.
Matthew 25:31-46 still applies.
