Robot Heart: Sex, Religion, and Politics

Health Care stories from the United States

chuckmore:abbyjean:

ezra says: A few weeks ago, Barack Obama’s Organizing for America put out a call for health-care stories from its members. Thousands flooded in. Now they’re online. This one, from Tristan, is particularly brutal:

I had health insurance through my employer after I graduated from college. I was having problems with my stomach, I vomited blood at least once a week. I went to a doctor to get checked out, but was told my insurance did not cover my treatment unless I had a primary care physician approve me for specialized stomach treatment. I tried to find a primary care physician, but the earliest available appointment for any PCP in my town was 8 months away. I never got the appointment, I never got the treatment (remember, I just wanted to be checked out).

I currently live in Japan and am eligible for the National Health Insurance plan here. It costs me approximately $100 a year. I went to get my stomach checked out, and learned that I have Barret’s Esophagus. Though the doctors cannot be sure, there is a chance that if I had been consulted on things I could do myself (diet changes) or given some sort of acid-reducing medicine then my stomach problems could have been controlled before they caused Barret’s Esophagus. Now, I have to live with the understanding that I have one of the leading symptoms for esophageal cancer (10% per patient-year or greater), one of the most deadly cancers known. I’m 27, and now my wife and I are questioning if we should have kids soon. I can’t help but think, “am I going to live to see my kids grow…” I love my home country, but my anger towards what its health care system has done to me is sometimes beyond control.

The marketplace provides the best health care ever! Hooray for free markety-ness!