From a reader without insurance since 2000...
Bob,
I don't have health insurance, either. I'm a former U.S. foreign service officer, but let my insurance lapse in 1991 when I resigned my commission. Later on, I picked up insurance through a writers group. But in the mid-1990s I got very, very sick, and the HMO, George Washington University, couldn't diagnose what was wrong. Finally the family doctor insisted I get a liver biopsy, which showed iron overload from hereditary hemochromatosis. If untreated, it's 100% fatal, but it is quite treatable through regular blood extractions. Anyhow, because the HMO hadn't diagnosed the illness they refused to pay for treatment. And because treatment, in the early stages, is very expensive, I didn't want to nor could afford to pay both for treatment and for my insurance that wasn't doing me any good. So since 2000 I've been without health insurance.
Normally I'm pretty healthy, but I'm 53 now, and worry about when things go wrong. Just two weeks ago, for example, I had a terrible cough and finally went to the emergency room of a local hospital. After blood work and x-rays they diagnosed pneumonia. OK, I got treatment, and now I'm starting to feel better. I also got a hospital bill for $1,100, and that's just for the hospital; I haven't even gotten the doctor's bill yet, which I'm sure will be several hundred bucks.
It distresses me to see the availability of all this medical skill and equipment, yet know that without insurance I won't benefit from much of it.
Well, you know how it is.
I hope Obama doesn't fudge this one, as he has almost every other controversial issue up until now.
Best,
g.