Health Insurance in the United States

I am fortunate. For the most part I have had health coverage all my life, with a few exceptions here and there. I also need health coverage to keep me alive. I have high blood pressure, severe depression, post traumatic stress disorder, diabetes, dyslexia, and I could go on.

The point is, without my medicines, I would die.

My friend Dan, who was younger than I was, had a faulty heart valve. Dan needed to have a stint in his artery near the heart to prevent collapse. he also needed medications just to stay alive. Dan had these things when he worked for me, but after I left the job we shared, Dan got let go. Not enough work, he told me shortly before he died. I am convinced Dan died because he could not get health coverage. No insurance company would take him as a client because of pre-existing health issues. He was simply left to die, which he did, at the young age of about 49. To me, his death was unnecessary. I miss him because he was a good friend and an excellent person.

My friend Debbie was a great cook. She worked for me in Galena and then went into business for herself in Freeport, Illinois. She put all her money into her business, was doing well with a start up, but then went to a routine doctor visit and discovered she had cancer. He health coverage was cancelled. She lost her business, house and everything and in the end, she died. Maybe she would not have survived therapy, but she never had the chance to try. Debbie was a fighter. Up until the same day she died she was trying to get some sort of coverage. No one could help. No insurance company would accept her claim. So, she was just another one who died because of lack of insurance.

Ron was another good friend who started his own business. Ron was chronically depressed, took medications that helped him cope with his life and allowed him to start his own business, which was just starting to be successful. then his insurance coverage ended, and he died. He hanged himself because he could no longer buy his medicines. In his suicide note he said that he couldn't live with the depression that plagued him since he was a child.

Frank T. and I were musicians together when we were younger.  Frank had a faulty heart valve since he was a child. When he grew up, he couldn't get health insurance because the companies he worked for couldn't afford group coverage. He died at 50 because his heart valve finally gave out. Frank was an extremely talented man, and now his talent is gone forever.

Frank B and I were also musician friends. Frank failed at most things in life, but he was really a good guy. He blew his brains out a few weeks ago because of his chronic depression, his lack of health coverage, and so on and so forth.

Should I go on?  I know of many people, friends, relatives, aquaintences, who need but can not get health coverage.  I have heard many stories of a few Canadians who have come here for health treatment.  Who tells the story of Americans who can not get health coverage in their own country?  So, far, not too many.

I am not going to debate which country has the best health care or which has the best coverage.  I only know that more than 20 people I know personally can not get either coverage or insurance.  Before someone tells me how fortunate "we" are, think about the people, maybe people you personally know, who are shut out of the system.  Do you care about them?  Do you care if they live or die, or at least if they are given the chance to fight their disease or condition?  If so, what are you willing to do about it?

Then look in the mirror and ask yourself: If I lost my health coverage today, what would happen to me?