2010-03-23, 05:27 PM
I'm noticing a lot of "I don't care, I'm young and healthy" and "Why should my money help you" type comments. I'd like to recommend you guys take a serious step back. To help you, I'd like to try and put you in my family's shoes for a minute. My mom was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis back when I was a toddler. MS is a progressive, chronic disease that gradually screws up your nerves and motor functions. Currently we can only treat symptoms, and even the cause is not particularly well understood. Over the next decade, my mom gradually lost the ability to walk, moving from canes to walkers and eventually becoming wheelchair-bound. Her arms are alright, but she tires quickly. Cognitively, she's all there. There isn't any imminent risk of death, just an elevated risk of infections and stuff like pneumonia (which recently killed a friend of my mom who had MS). MS is not some horrific thing like cancer or Alzheimer's, and not everyone gets to the point my mother is at. Some might just end up walking with a cane and having a few other problems like spastic legs or arms. But MS is permanent and debilitating.
My family had to sort of adopt as we went. My mom could still drive for several years using hand controls for the gas and brake pedals, we eventually had to build a ramp in the garage just to get up the two steps, things like that. Over the course of years, my mom gradually got worse, had to stop working and stay at home. My dad was still employed at this point. Now and then my mom would have serious issues pop up, and I can think of at least two occasions where my mom had to spent a week in the hospital, before I even got to high school. One of our vacations in Tennessee was spoiled when my mom spent three days in a hospital there. That was when we figured out she couldn't handle temperatures much higher than 75 for hours at a time without having problems pop up. My dad quit his job and took about a year and a half off while I was a 5th grader. He wanted to sort of "be there" as a parent while me and my sister where still young. We got very active in Boy Scouts, school trips, stuff like that. This was around the same time my mom got to the point where she really couldn't even get around the house. My dad had to dress her in the morning, showers, all that simple stuff. In this same time period, my dad obliterated his savings. All of it. He was doing some self- employed free lance work, so it isn't like we were bringing in $0. My dad just needed flexibility his old job couldn't give him. He then realized it was simply impossible to keep doing it alone. This was when he started setting up a support system for my mom. My dad's not the type to just not come home one day and leave the rest of us, but I think if he hadn't started getting help at this point, today he'd be a broken man and we probably would've been homeless at some point.
He started contacting various private group like Jewish Family Services, Orchard Family Services, as well as public ones like Medicaid. We discovered a program that would give us 2 hours a weekday of an in-home aide who could get my mom up and going in the morning. We'd only pay $2/hour for the help. It was a start. It was enough to let my dad get back to a regular job. Over time though, this still wasn't enough. Jumping ahead a little, my dad spent years getting our support system to where it is now- combining services from a number of organizations public and private. We're finally got up to 6 hours a day of help from 3 different aides. My dad still did all the hustling and bustling on weekends. My mom has her own room now since getting the necessary privacy was hard to do while my sister and I still lived at home. There just wasn't enough space with the big bed she and my dad had in the master bedroom. We've got an old hospital bed for her, commodes, two wheelchairs, a power wheelchair. My dad was able to get essentially a free chair in our now very old Winstar from Ford that swivels to face out the door and slides down about 6 inches. We came a long way.
My dad had the same job for about 8 years after I got into middle school, before quitting due to some office politics and a particularly bad new boss. This was a few months before pomegranate hit the fan in '08. It took him until this December to land a new job. He sent out nearly 400 applications in that time and tried to go self-employed again, flew out to interviews as far from Michigan as California, was one of two finalists for a job in Vermont and a finalist for one in Richmond. He finally landed a job with Kellogg, about two and a half hours from my house. In every instance, he put so much value in the support system he'd built up, he was willing to wait a full year before moving my mother to a new location. He'd rather spend a year many states away to make sure the job would work, flying or driving back each weekend, before he uprooted my mom and had to reassemble his system from the ground up. It was that challenging and time-consuming to get things the way they are. And the way things are is the only reason my dad is able to be gone during the week to hold down a job. He spends his week in Grand Rapids, entrusts my mom to the aides and the weekly nurse visit, and drives back each weekend. He'd likely still be out of the job, as there really are none closer to Detroit or he'd have had to uproot my mom and start his support system from scratch again. And he's getting too old for that pomegranate.
Since my dad drained his savings back while I was a 5th grader, I'd describe our lifestyle as living comfortably middle-class paycheck to paycheck. Last I checked, my dad was making $70-80,000/year, and we still have problems keeping up with the medical costs of MS despite all the help we get. My dad is neither frivolous nor frugal, but I can't blame him for wanting to leave a comfortable lifestyle, even if that meant leaving his savings largely empty. I'm sure he's got some debt, I might not know how much until he dies, but we haven't lived so far beyond our means that foreclosure or repossession have ever been worries. My sister and I have loaned money, my grandparents too. He always repays with good interest.
Could you imagine where we'd be if we didn't have good enough insurance while my dad was working, or if one of those policies suddenly dropped my mom because of her pre-existing condition? Or even more basic, if there was no Medicare or Medicaid? I can. It's not pretty. I don't think it's a stretch to say I'm very lucky to be a happy, functioning young adult.
tl;dr
Please take a minute to consider the idea of being a victim of circumstance. It happens to hard-working people, some with situations far more extraordinary than my family's and to some who don't have someone as capable and loyal as my dad to rely on. When health problems far beyond your control rob you of the ability to work, then what? This isn't a matter of getting off your lazy ass to afford insurance. Obviously people will try to take advantage of any entitlement program. Hell, I have an estranged aunt who lives off Social Security. But it's unfair to fight or hate on the general idea of health care and health care reform because of individuals gaming the system. It is in the best interest of our government to try and prevent this, and I'm sure they will. So reserve your judgments about people misusing health care until you can prove it's actually damaging the system. And hate those people for it. Don't hate the system trying to help honest, good people because of those free riders. If you're going to disagree with this bill and any other that may follow, please have a logical reason. If you object to the expansion of big government, I understand and to an extent agree. If you fear the financial cost and addition to the national debt, I'm totally with you. I think the debt is our country's most likely cause of destruction. But given my position and background, I can't just say this bill is an evil thing. I think if I were a Congressman, I would've voted for it. And I'd have kept my eye on it over time, proposing changes and improvements where necessary and doing everything in my power to make it as cost effective as possible.
My family had to sort of adopt as we went. My mom could still drive for several years using hand controls for the gas and brake pedals, we eventually had to build a ramp in the garage just to get up the two steps, things like that. Over the course of years, my mom gradually got worse, had to stop working and stay at home. My dad was still employed at this point. Now and then my mom would have serious issues pop up, and I can think of at least two occasions where my mom had to spent a week in the hospital, before I even got to high school. One of our vacations in Tennessee was spoiled when my mom spent three days in a hospital there. That was when we figured out she couldn't handle temperatures much higher than 75 for hours at a time without having problems pop up. My dad quit his job and took about a year and a half off while I was a 5th grader. He wanted to sort of "be there" as a parent while me and my sister where still young. We got very active in Boy Scouts, school trips, stuff like that. This was around the same time my mom got to the point where she really couldn't even get around the house. My dad had to dress her in the morning, showers, all that simple stuff. In this same time period, my dad obliterated his savings. All of it. He was doing some self- employed free lance work, so it isn't like we were bringing in $0. My dad just needed flexibility his old job couldn't give him. He then realized it was simply impossible to keep doing it alone. This was when he started setting up a support system for my mom. My dad's not the type to just not come home one day and leave the rest of us, but I think if he hadn't started getting help at this point, today he'd be a broken man and we probably would've been homeless at some point.
He started contacting various private group like Jewish Family Services, Orchard Family Services, as well as public ones like Medicaid. We discovered a program that would give us 2 hours a weekday of an in-home aide who could get my mom up and going in the morning. We'd only pay $2/hour for the help. It was a start. It was enough to let my dad get back to a regular job. Over time though, this still wasn't enough. Jumping ahead a little, my dad spent years getting our support system to where it is now- combining services from a number of organizations public and private. We're finally got up to 6 hours a day of help from 3 different aides. My dad still did all the hustling and bustling on weekends. My mom has her own room now since getting the necessary privacy was hard to do while my sister and I still lived at home. There just wasn't enough space with the big bed she and my dad had in the master bedroom. We've got an old hospital bed for her, commodes, two wheelchairs, a power wheelchair. My dad was able to get essentially a free chair in our now very old Winstar from Ford that swivels to face out the door and slides down about 6 inches. We came a long way.
My dad had the same job for about 8 years after I got into middle school, before quitting due to some office politics and a particularly bad new boss. This was a few months before pomegranate hit the fan in '08. It took him until this December to land a new job. He sent out nearly 400 applications in that time and tried to go self-employed again, flew out to interviews as far from Michigan as California, was one of two finalists for a job in Vermont and a finalist for one in Richmond. He finally landed a job with Kellogg, about two and a half hours from my house. In every instance, he put so much value in the support system he'd built up, he was willing to wait a full year before moving my mother to a new location. He'd rather spend a year many states away to make sure the job would work, flying or driving back each weekend, before he uprooted my mom and had to reassemble his system from the ground up. It was that challenging and time-consuming to get things the way they are. And the way things are is the only reason my dad is able to be gone during the week to hold down a job. He spends his week in Grand Rapids, entrusts my mom to the aides and the weekly nurse visit, and drives back each weekend. He'd likely still be out of the job, as there really are none closer to Detroit or he'd have had to uproot my mom and start his support system from scratch again. And he's getting too old for that pomegranate.
Since my dad drained his savings back while I was a 5th grader, I'd describe our lifestyle as living comfortably middle-class paycheck to paycheck. Last I checked, my dad was making $70-80,000/year, and we still have problems keeping up with the medical costs of MS despite all the help we get. My dad is neither frivolous nor frugal, but I can't blame him for wanting to leave a comfortable lifestyle, even if that meant leaving his savings largely empty. I'm sure he's got some debt, I might not know how much until he dies, but we haven't lived so far beyond our means that foreclosure or repossession have ever been worries. My sister and I have loaned money, my grandparents too. He always repays with good interest.
Could you imagine where we'd be if we didn't have good enough insurance while my dad was working, or if one of those policies suddenly dropped my mom because of her pre-existing condition? Or even more basic, if there was no Medicare or Medicaid? I can. It's not pretty. I don't think it's a stretch to say I'm very lucky to be a happy, functioning young adult.
tl;dr
Please take a minute to consider the idea of being a victim of circumstance. It happens to hard-working people, some with situations far more extraordinary than my family's and to some who don't have someone as capable and loyal as my dad to rely on. When health problems far beyond your control rob you of the ability to work, then what? This isn't a matter of getting off your lazy ass to afford insurance. Obviously people will try to take advantage of any entitlement program. Hell, I have an estranged aunt who lives off Social Security. But it's unfair to fight or hate on the general idea of health care and health care reform because of individuals gaming the system. It is in the best interest of our government to try and prevent this, and I'm sure they will. So reserve your judgments about people misusing health care until you can prove it's actually damaging the system. And hate those people for it. Don't hate the system trying to help honest, good people because of those free riders. If you're going to disagree with this bill and any other that may follow, please have a logical reason. If you object to the expansion of big government, I understand and to an extent agree. If you fear the financial cost and addition to the national debt, I'm totally with you. I think the debt is our country's most likely cause of destruction. But given my position and background, I can't just say this bill is an evil thing. I think if I were a Congressman, I would've voted for it. And I'd have kept my eye on it over time, proposing changes and improvements where necessary and doing everything in my power to make it as cost effective as possible.