to the ranks of the uninsured.
I am a healthy person for my age. I have not dire diseases, no debilitating issues. I take the lowest level of maintenance drugs for blood pressure (a beta blocker not even an ACE inhibitor or a vasodilator.) I take a statin for cholesterol. I also improve both situations through diet and exercise. I take 5mg of Citalopram daily for anxiety. This is half the minimum dosage of 10mg. I take one pill every other day. I do not smoke, my diabetes is gone, I have never had an abnormal pap smear.
And yet, because I take the minimal prescriptions required to maintain my current quality of health I am considered a health risk by insurance companies and I have now been turned down by Kaiser (who covered me for the past 4 years under my former company's insurance) and Aetna for preexisting conditions.
I disagree. I am NOT a health risk. However lack of access to health care IS a real health risk. This is the type of shit that infuriates me. It isn't about providing CARE to individuals and families, it is about EXPENSE and RETURN ON INVESTMENT. Insurance companies do not want me because I will cost them money and lower their gross profit because I visit a doctor twice a year and I take 3 prescriptions.
The rules which govern insurance and "pre existing" conditions vary from state to state. I'm fortunate to live in California, which while not perfect, does give me some options. As an uninsured woman I can go to Planned Parenthood for my annual female exams, pay a sliding fee and be assured of health check ups.
California also has Medi-Cal which pays for basic prescriptions such as birth control pills, blood pressure medication, diabetes supplies (which I don't need, fortunately). California also allows me to use Planned Parenthood as a Primary Care facility for non-emergency, general medical care. Again, I play a sliding fee based on my gross monthly income.
I was raised a Navy Brat. My father, as a retired career navy man, has had access to the only version of 'socialized' health care available in the United States. Yet he considers "socialism" a dirty word second only to "communist." I have been an advocate for socialized medicine and universal health care for two decades now. And I'm a living embodiment as to why this is needed. Not because we need to bleed government coffers dry to support the 'uninsured' but because the current rules and regulations which govern the health care and insurance industry are broken and do not serve the society, they serve only the golden lined pockets of insurance executives and stockholders, lobby-ists (the Insurance lobby is the largest in DC) and those politicians it owns.
So, I will continue to take responsibility and advocate for my own personal health through the options I have available to me, and by lifestyle choices such as diet and exercise. I will also continue to be a loud, rational, defiant, advocate for universal healthcare for all. It is the only humane and pro-LIFE solution.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
