A Month of Gratitude, Day 17 - Health Care

Tuesday, December 17, 2013
In all my life, I have never been without health care.

As a child I was covered by my parents' plan. Then the Navy took over, and I received excellent care for the years I was on active duty. Once I went to work for Lucent Technologies, Kaiser Permanente was my provider, and will remain so until March, when I'll be moving to a more traditional health insurance plan as a result of my new job.*

But I've never had to go without quality care, and neither have my children. I've never had to choose between paying the electric bill and getting my kids immunized. I've never had to apply for government assistance because my employer didn't offer health insurance. I've never had to deal with the uncertainty of not knowing what was wrong with me or someone I cared for because there was no way to pay for the necessary diagnostics. 

I am profoundly, consistently fortunate in this, especially given that over 48 million people in this country are uninsured. Today I'm grateful to be in a position where I have access to quality health care when I need it.

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*This means I actually have to pick a doctor and fill out insurance forms. I'm approaching 50, and honestly - I've never had to do this before.

3 comments:

Random Michelle K said...

After graduation, I had a several year stint without health care, and it was horrible.

You get sick, you just tough it out. And since you're working min wage, you go to work sick, which means you stay sick longer.

Since then, a priority when job hunting has always been good health care, because nothing having it--as we all know--can be deadly.

So I too, am thankful for my excellent health care plan.

Carol Elaine said...

I've been without health insurance a few times and it is scary. I was without health insurance in 2006 when my body decided it wanted to throw all sorts of weird and new things at me. I was working at the time at JPL, but it was as a contractor, not an employee.

Luckily I found a low-cost county run clinic that diagnosed my anxiety and asthma and I was able to get prescriptions for free, though I had to wait all day to get them - fine for me because I had sick days I could use. Others don't have that luxury.

Count me as thankful that I have an excellent health insurance plan.

Beatrice Desper said...

I'm thankful that in the US, I was in a financial position to be able to see enough doctors to be diagnosed for a chronic illness. Now, I'm thankful that socialized medicine and my secondary insurance pick up the tab for over $125' worth of prescriptions I take a month.
Many people in Europe believe that with Obamacare, everybody is insured. Not! That's really sad for the richest country in the world.