By Jill Richardson
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| Click here for more of Barry Deutsch's history of GOP opposition to government health plans |
For the
first time in years, I’ve got health insurance. Before now, my “insurance” was
nothing more than exercise, a healthy diet, and medicinal herbs.
I’ve
gotten insured through the Affordable Care Act without dealing with a buggy
website because I live in California. Our state made its own website because
our politicians are more concerned about their citizens’ health than making
President Barack Obama look bad.
On
Covered California, the state’s web-based health insurance exchange, I found a
wide variety of plans and with subsidies some cost as little as $1 a year. I
chose one that costs $23 a month after subsidies. Even without subsidies, the
rates are pretty good.
Why
didn’t I have insurance? Because I’m self-employed and I have a pre-existing
condition. I’m young and otherwise healthy, but I get migraines. The insurance
companies — before the Affordable Care Act took effect — decided I was too
risky for them.
So those
are the costs the insurance companies were saving themselves by denying me
coverage. Without insurance, I just didn’t go to the doctor unless I had no
choice.
Once, on
a business trip to Bolivia, a dog bit me. When I got home, I had to get rabies
treatment, just in case. Price tag: $4,000. Even after the hospital and the
drug company each cut me a break, it cost $2,000, all out of pocket. For someone
who struggles to make ends meet each month, it was devastating.
My worst
fear is getting bitten by a rattlesnake. That’s not an irrational fear either.
I hike several times a week on trails where I see lots of snakes, and three
friends have been bitten. One was covered by Medicare. The other two had no
insurance, and they got stuck with bills for $150,000 they can’t pay.
If that
had happened to me, I simply couldn’t pay. Maybe I’d go bankrupt — but the
hospital still would not get its money because I don’t have it. And since the
hospital has to make ends meet, they’d probably respond by increasing the
prices for everyone else.
The
crazy thing is that hospitals charge individuals higher rates than they charge
insurance companies. Insurance companies have negotiated rates, so they might
pay a mere $14,000 for the hip replacement that would cost $45,000 for an
individual paying out of pocket.
For me,
the Affordable Care Act is a godsend. I hated it at first because I resent that
I am forced to give my money to the same greedy insurance companies that did
not see fit to give me affordable coverage for all these years. I’d prefer
a “Medicare for all” approach. But if I can’t have that, I’ll take this.
My lack
of health insurance hasn’t only been risky for me. Right now, whooping cough is
going around where I live. I know people who have it. If you’re vaccinated, you
can still get mildly ill. But it’s highly contagious and can be serious for
infants and the elderly. If you live near me, you want me to go to the doctor
if I get a cough, just in case. Otherwise, you’d want me to stay away from your
baby.
It’s
true that the Affordable Care Act isn’t equally good for everyone. If you get
insurance from your employer, it might not impact you at all. Americans with
low incomes get better rates than those with more money. But I’m sick of
hearing fear-mongering and horror stories about it because I know firsthand
that it can help people.
OtherWords columnist
Jill Richardson is the author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food
System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It. OtherWords.org
