Blind Prophecy

The other night Jennifer and I were sitting around the table with our friend Heather. In one of those rambling, free-flow conversations you have over tea, I noticed that the topic kept circling back to health concerns. From reproductive health to weight loss to psychological problems to general aches and pains… easily half of our conversation centered around a strange sort of group folk-wisdom diagnosis (“that sounds just like how my mother described her illness…” “I’ve heard that people who don’t get enough B12 experience things like that…”).

Of the three of us, only one currently has health care insurance. Those without health care engaged in this kind of speculative group diagnosis because we were afraid of going to a doctor and having something recognized by a medical professional and becoming a “pre-existing condition.” The one of us who does have health insurance still finds the co-pays prohibitively expensive and struggles to keep prescriptions and care up-to-date in a system that severely limits their choice in doctors, brands, and treatment.

None of this is a recipe for healthy living. I wonder how much better off we would be if, instead of swapping folk wisdom about inexpensive treatments for lay-diagnosed conditions, we could just go see a doctor.

I’ve had three health insurance plans as an adult. They all sucked. In San Francisco, unless I was in an ambulance and the medics felt that I must get to the nearest possible ER, I had to ignore the hospital that was two blocks from my home in favor of the one that was 3 miles across town. When I was having a mental health crisis many years ago in Las Vegas, my insurance carrier allowed me 4 (four!) appointments with a counselor before they told me to pick up the bill. How well do you think you can get with four psychiatric appointments per year? And this is the choice that Republicans and some Democrats are fighting to preserve? Fuck that noise.

I have no love for the private sector health insurance system. I also recognize the critical failings of a system where the uninsured are afraid to seek diagnosis. Which is why I’m writing my Representatives and Senators in Congress and asking them to support a public option for health care reform. Only a massive grassroots call for action has any chance of overcoming the deeply entrenched insurance lobby. Please contact your elected officials asking them to support a public option for health insurance.

Filed under: politics by Jere Keys