I was thinking about the lovely Vega, what with all the birthday preparations and talk going on. And I remembered a blog she wrote almost exactly a year ago, about health insurance. I wish she was around to write and yell, to her friends, elected representatives and at town halls. I have been thinking a lot about the letters and phone calls I will be making to my own elected officials in the next few days, fighting to keep abortion legally covered by private health insurance (it is already not covered on a federal level, but, it is covered by Medi-Cal). And that it is ridiculous that we are fighting to keep access to family planning services for people that already have them, instead of trying to expand coverage, help the under or un-insured. How did the healthcare reform debate get to this point? Anyway, possibly I will include this in those letters. Because this should be what we are talking about, not fighting to keep what little care we have.
Anyway, here is her blog entry, titled Why we need socialized medicine, written on September 27, 2008.
I'm back in the Phoenix metro area for a little while at least. It's kind of weird. I've finally started coming to terms with the fact that I kind of like it here and most of my best friends have left. Or are planning on leaving. Or are busy with jobs, significant others, and kids. It seems like in the nearly two years since I got sick again, everyone suddenly grew up. I'm okay with it, but at times it's lonely. I'm starting radiation soon for my most recent tumor and then...I don't know. The rest of my body seems to be alright. (Knock on wood.) The doctors say that my disease is "stable." Meaning it's not aggressively advancing and trying to kill me. That's good. It needs to stay that way so I can go out and get a life. Maybe find some nice guy to claim me on his insurance so I'm set for the next time. Canada's looking good right now or maybe Hawaii. Although, Hawaii freaks me out a little because you can't just get in your car and leave the state. In case you didn't pick up on it, my insurance runs out on Dec 31st. There are few options in America for someone in my sitch. My hope is that my disease will be stable enough for me to go out and get a full time job by early next year. In which case my parents and I will only be paying an exorbitant insurance rate for a few months. Or my cancer can get worse, I'll remain unemployed and leave the burden on my family. They'll work and work to help keep me alive, I die anyway, and they end up destitute in their retirement. But, as my father pointed out, he has a reasonably wealthy sister who could take them in. Or the insurance companies can refuse to cover me because of some fucked up technicality, my insurance can run out, I can be responsible for out of pocket medical costs, and file bankruptcy before I'm 30. Woo-hoo. I'm hoping that by getting these thoughts on paper, they'll get the fuck out of my head.
Mollies post script This is the last blog she wrote. (Un)luckily, she never had to find out what would have happened when her insurance ran out. By December 31st, she was at the hospital for the last time, soon to be surrounded by those friends that had either moved away, or were planning to. She only spent 5 days burdening her family, in her words.
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