Just 15 more days until Medicare kicks in, and I’m kind of a nervous wreck. I’m terrified the fates will grab me by the throat, shake me and say, “Oh, you thought you could get away with having this shitty insurance, huh?”
Oh, the things you obsess about when you live alone…
Yesterday morning, there was a pain in my left forearm. I began to panic: “Don’t tell me I’m having a heart attack?” I took my blood pressure, it was okay. I looked up the specific pain on the internet, and the most likely cause was pain from an entrapped nerve, of which I have so very many since my gym accident. (Did you know I usually have to post while wearing a cervical collar? Fun!)
I also read this article in the Washington Post yesterday, and let’s just say I, as so many of us, can relate. I also know so many well-to-do people, and it’s unthinkable to them that you can be crushed by medical debt unless it’s something catastrophic, like cancer, or that you’d actually put off going to the doctor or the ER because of the potential cost. They don’t say anything, but I get the impression that they think people like me have just been extraordinarily careless to allow myself to be in this position.
And then, you have the surprise billing. Things not covered by your co-pay that you don’t even find out about until months or even years have passed.
I am hopeful that, if Elizabeth Warren is our next president, she will call for immediate reform of the bankruptcy laws, once again make it affordable, and open it up to those with student debt.
Because living like this is crazy, and so is the country that mandates it for people who have no other choice.
Is hiding under your bed for the next two weeks an option?
All kidding aside, our current reality is that establishment Democrats like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi (both Biden supporters) and Never Trump Republicans like Joe Scarborough and Justin Amash (also Biden supporters) want Democrats to nominate an “electable” “realist.” Somebody who knows what’s “politically possible.” (Like Joe Biden of course.)
If the Democrats were to control the House, the Senate, and the Presidency then anything and everything would be politically possible.
What ails this country is too many Republicans in elected office and not nearly enough Progressive Democrats like Warren and Bernie in office.
We should all do our part to “eliminate” the Republican “invasion” by voting all of them out of office in 2020.
Then we can work on changing the hearts and minds of establishment Democrats.
Medicare-for-all
I have found that Medicare and Medicaid work best when you have no financial resources for them to try and take from you.
So if you’re catastrophically ill and can’t work at all, they cover you.
If you plan on getting better and working again, not so much.