What's your first thought when you feel yourself starting to get sick?

[Kitty Herder]

Mine is, "This better not get worse, because I can't AFFORD to see a doctor!!" It sort of hit me the other day how fucked up it is that my main concern when ill is not my health, but the fear that I may have to spend money that I don't really have on a doctor's appointment and an expensive prescription.

I've had a nasty cough and my mother remarked that she hoped I'm not getting pneumonia. (I think she was being a little over-dramatic and worrying needlessly, but that's what mothers do.) The first thought that went through my head when she said it was not, "Oh God, I hope I don't get pneumonia because that would suck," but "Oh God, I can't afford to go to the doctor if I do get pneumonia." How fucked up is that?

I know I'm not the only one who has that reaction to illness. At least I only have myself to worry about. I can't imagine what it's like for parents when their children get sick to be torn between the worry for their health and the worry about being able to afford treatment for them.

And it's not just the uninsured like myself. My mother has insurance through her job with the federal government. As far as insurance goes, it's not horrible, but it's not great either. (That's the insurance our congresspeople have and that they keep saying they'd like us all to have.) She had much better insurance when she worked for the local county. Anyway, even with the insurance, she spends thousands on medical costs each year because she has diabetes. Fortunately, she can afford it. But she was telling me about an older lady who worked as a receptionist in her office, who had the same insurance that my mom has, but made considerably less money. This lady was quite ill for a long time, but put off going to the doctor for months because she couldn't afford it, even with her federal insurance. She ended up almost dying from bleeding ulcers.

This is the wealthiest nation in the world! We can spend billions on bailouts for irresponsible, uber-wealthy bankers, and billions more on an aggressive war of choice, yet we can't provide the basic service of healthcare to ALL our citizens?! That is not acceptable!

SINGLE-PAYER, UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE NOW! No half-way measures to appease the public while still providing huge profits for the insurance companies!

Edited to add:

***Do you all think that if we push hard enough, apply enough pressure, and raise holy hell that we can convince our government to provide single-payer health care for all? As much as I love our new President-elect, his healthcare plan is bunk. We'll have a Democratic President, and Democratic majorities in both houses of congress. We have to push for this while the iron is hot! We can't let them pacify us with bullshit measures designed mostly to help the insurance industry. If we do that, the pendulum of political attitudes in this country may swing back the other way in the meantime, and we'll end up with conservatives in power again, and our chance will be lost on this issue for many more years.***