I’ve been shocked by the turn the debate on health care reform has taken recently and want to share my own story and encourage people to call their congressmen and let them know that you support health care reform with a robust public option (I called mine today). We desperately need change to our broken health care system, and we all need to do our part to make sure it happens.
You can find the phone numbers for your Senators and Representatives on this website by entering your ZIP code at the left of the page:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt
When I was 19, I was raped by an acquaintance after a college party. As a result, I left school for a year and went into regular psychiatric therapy, which was covered by my parents’ excellent health insurance through my dad’s job. When I turned 22, I was no longer eligible for my parents’ coverage, and went out to look for my own coverage. I was no longer in therapy, so I was just looking for the basics – coverage for regular check-ups and rare trips to the doctor.
Within a year, I had submitted applications for coverage to four major health care providers and was rejected by all of them. When I finally pushed aggressively with a customer service representative from Aetna, I learned that health insurance companies maintain a black-list of “pre-existing conditions” and treatments on the basis of which they will deny your request for coverage.
Solely because I had been in therapy to process the trauma of my sexual assault and related depression, I was denied coverage by Aetna, United Health Care, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Kaiser Permanente.
I am extremely grateful that my parents have been able to support me so that I could receive health care outside of the insurance system, paying out of pocket. I’ve also been lucky enough that I traveled overseas on vacation and for work and could receive health care then. But how many of the 12 million Americans without insurance (over 4m of whom have tried to get insurance like me) have a backup like this? Our system is broken, and discriminates against the people who need health care the most.
Some have said to me that I should have tried harder to ‘game’ the system before I was off my parents’ health insurance, paying out of pocket for health care instead of going through my insurance so there would be no record of preexisting conditions. But isn’t this what insurance is for? Isn’t this why (starting in June) I pay $90 a month for the insurance I now get through my employer? This kind of cynicism helps no one, because we can, indeed, change the system. What was built by men can be dismantled and reformed by men.
Even if the health care debate seems far removed from your life, know that our broken system disenfranchises many people with whom you share loving relationships, friendships, and acquaintances. Please pick up the phone NOW and call your elected representatives in Congress and tell them we need health care reform with a robust public option.
You can find the phone numbers for your Senators and Representatives on this website by entering your ZIP code at the left of the page:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt
Calling your elected reps is very easy – when a staffperson answers the phone, you should let them know you’re a constituent from the Congressman’s district and then let them know that you support health care reform, and you can let them know why. If you want to be aggressive, you can insist on speaking with the staff person who is handling health reform legislation.
2 Comments
1 Amanda wrote:
Years ago, my aunt was filling out forms to buy insurance for her family (she and my uncle were self-employed) and she went through that classic list of preexisting condition questions.
Do you have cancer? no
Do you have heart disease? no
Do you have dizzy spells? no
Do you sometimes feel depressed? Yes
And her application was rejected. Because she said she sometimes feels depressed. Crazy. And eye opening for me.
2 Craig wrote:
Just wrote my legislators because of your post. Thx for writing this.