I have shied away from the ongoings of the public health care debate. I deemed them too heated, too beliggerent to even give it a second thought – let it be and this too shall pass. An article on Newsweek.com that I happened to read a few moments ago, reminded me of the importance of vigilance when it comes to politics, most especially when it comes to health care. The article was about the need for the President to reframe his Health-Care debate, Obama needs to reframe health-care debate, and I quote:

“As the health-care debate rages, it’s the Party of Sort-of-Maybe-Yes versus the Party of Hell No! The Yessers are more lackadaisical because they’ve forgotten the stakes—they’ve forgotten that this is the most important civil-rights bill in a generation, though it is rarely framed that way.

The main reason that the bill isn’t sold as civil rights is that most Americans don’t believe there’s a “right” to health care. They see their rights as inalienable, and thus free, which health care isn’t. Serious illness is an abstraction (thankfully) for younger Americans. It’s something that happens to someone else, and if that someone else is older than 65, we know that Medicare will take care of it. Polls show that the 87 percent of Americans who have health insurance aren’t much interested in giving any new rights and entitlements to “them”—the uninsured.

But how about if you or someone you know loses a job and the them becomes “us”? The recession, which is thought to be harming the cause of reform, could be aiding it if the story were told with the proper sense of drama and fright. Since all versions of the pending bill ban discrimination by insurance companies against people with preexisting conditions, that provision isn’t controversial. Which means it gets little attention. Which means that the deep moral wrong that passage of this bill would remedy is somehow missing from the debate.“

“Sec. 111. Prohibiting Pre-Existing Condition Exclusions

A qualified health benefits plan may not impose any pre-existing condition exclusion (as defined in section 2701 (b) (1) (A) of the Public Health Service Act) or otherwise impose any limit or condition on the coverage under the plan with respect an individual or dependent based on any health status-related factors (as defined in section 2791 (d) (9) of the Public Health Service Act) in relation to the individual or dependent. ” – H.R. 200 (Health Care Bill as proposed by the Government on July 14, 2009).

To me, the inclusion of preexisting conditions in any health-care reform bill hits home directly, and woke me up from my political indifference. Three years ago, I was faced with a decision that would ultimately alter the course of my life: to conceive or not to conceive. Conception was not a trivial choice in that it involved a medical ailment I had endured for many years: endometriosis.  After years of horrific pain endured during the menstruation cycle, I was finally diagnosed with endometriosis that also plagued my mother and my aunt. Treatment consisted of hormone injections to cause my body to think itself undergoing menopause thus preventing the production of estrogen that feeds the growth of the endometriomic cysts attached to my reproductive system. Upon the end of the nine month treatment in October of 2005, the doctor gave me two options: surgery or conception. He stated that conception was a better route as I was still young and any surgery to laser off the remnants of the endometriosis might cause more damage to my already worn reproductive system. Hesitant and wary from the toll of the hormone treatment, I chose option 2: conception.

We thought we had a year to prepare ourselves, but life has other plans. We were successful within a month after the end of my treatment. On Christmas Day, the blue line appeared and I was undoubdtedly pregnant. Pregnancy, I thought would be much easier than the horrors of hormone therapy. I was wrong. The first few weeks found me with a persistent, never-ending cold of which I could not take medicine for as I was in the early first trimester. I then had to quit my position at work because I was ill most of the time. Then, to add to my ordeal, I was faced with having no insurance for my pregnancy. The Cobra continuance option was not really an option was it meant giving $500 to the insurance companies per month that I did not have. Thus, I scoured the Internet for private, independent insurance.

The Internet brought me to a sight that provided several options for private insurance. Kaiser, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna to name a few. I sought out Kaiser so I can continue to be cared for under the same doctor who had treated me during my illness. I processed the forms, resigned myself to agreeing to the hundred dollar or so per month for care, and sent it out. I called my doctor to make an appointment, my first official appointment as a pregnant woman, and waited for my confirmation letter.

The letter did come. But it wasn’t confirmation. It was a denial.I was denied insurance as I had a preexisting condition. Through heavy eyes I read the letter verbatim making sure I read correctly. What preexisting condition did I have? Surely pregnancy is not a preexisting condition? How could they deny insurance on a pregnant lady? My eyes were not mistaken. There, in black and white, pregnancy was a condition they would not cover as it preexisted my application for insurance. Ontop of pregnancy, the also included migraines as a preexisting condition. Migraines? I did not have migraines? Then,  I remembered that my husband was on my previous insurance and he did have migraines. He had migraines because of his condition. He was born with Arterio Venous Malformation that erupted when he was a teenager and brought him to the Emergency Room for surgery to remove it. He thankfully survived. But he still feels the effects of it. He still had migraines and sometimes epileptic seizures that require him to be on medication. His condition and the fact that his name was tied to mine as he had been under my insurance pushed the insurance company to further deny my application to get insurance for my pregnancy and unborn baby.

I was at a loss. I had never before felt so shaken by the injustices of a society. I felt discriminated against based on my own condition and based on my husband’s ailment. I used the last of my savings to pay to visit a private doctor. $500 was spent just for a check up. I asked if he was able to provide services for my pregnancy and he said he was but at a steep price. I could not afford it. Public insurance was also not an option as I was only three years a Permanent Residence and they require the applicant to have been a Permanent Resident of the US for at least five years.  Thus, for my first trimester and the beginning of my second, I was without insurance. I did not see any doctors, I could not afford them.

My husband too faced issues as my not having coverage meant he did not have coverage as well. He worked only a temp job at the time so he could not get insurance from them. And as he had a preexisting condition he could not secure a private one either. Apart from scrambling for funds for my one only doctor visit at the time, we too had to scramble for funds to pay for his medication. Without insurance, his medication cost well over $300. I remember breaking a piggy bank we were storing change in, the piggy bank we meant for our unborn child’s savings, to help pay for his medication. We procured $150 dollars from that piggy bank alone, then my sister and my mother also chipped with to cover the rest. That night in particular will forever be etched in my mind. I rubbed my belly and said a prayer that my child/children will not have to endure such measures to be healthy.

The heavens answered our prayers on my fourth month of pregnancy. Hubby got a job with a company whose insurance kicks in within a month of his acceptance. His company and their insurance policies was a blessing, ontop of that they covered everything for maternal care. If he had found another company with typical insurance procedures we would not have insurance until the three-month probationary period was over, that would mean that I would still be without insurance until my seventh month of pregnancy.

As I read about the present debate about health care, I am baffled by the understanding that our present health-care system does not need to change. Perhaps, if I had not gone through what I went through during my pregnancy, I too would hold the same sentiments. I was and still am appalled that healthcare has and is being denied to those who need it the most: those with preexisting conditions. My husband could not help his illness that has been with him since birth, my son cannot help being asthmatic. We are now blessed with insurance from our companies, but the ordeal we endured during the beginning of 2006 will not be forgotten and continues to remind us of the need for health-care reform in this country.

Those who have preexisting conditions should not be discriminated against.
Health care is not only a right for the healthy, but for everyone.