This is a very scary topic for me to write about.  As I’ve stated in past posts, I usually stay as far away from politics as possible.  I hate the anger and contention that ensues because of the disagreements over the issues.  However, in my last poll, a good number of you said you wanted to read about my feelings on controversial issues.  Here I go.

I’ve been thinking about President Obama’s health plan a lot.  Mostly, because there are so many posts/polls about people disliking/liking it on Facebook.

In talking about his health plan, President Obama has said, “No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick.”  First off, I agree with this statement whole-heartedly.  Now, before you start seething or fuming because I agree with this statement, please hear me out.  Just because I agree with this statement doesn’t mean I agree with the entire health plan in general.

One of my Facebook friends posted President Obama’s statement as their status on Facebook.  I immediately clicked the “Like” link.  A few minutes later, I noticed the following comment:

“Then, they should plan ahead and take care of themselves. Because if we want the government to do it, it will cost us our souls!”

The part that really struck a chord with me is the planning ahead to take care of themselves.  In general, that’s a good rule, but from personal experience, it doesn’t always work like that.

Corey and I were married in March 1998.  He was 22 and I was 19.  We had very little money, but we both had jobs and we had good insurance through Corey’s job.  However, because we didn’t want to be stuck in the same place our entire life, we decided that because I only had a year left of school at Snow College to get my Associates degree, we would quit our jobs, move to Ephraim, find a job there, and finish my year at school.

This plan worked until Corey was injured on the job in July 1998.  And, unfortunately, the job wasn’t paying worker’s compensation and they didn’t have insurance, even though they had told us they did.  (We were young and naive.)  Because Corey could no longer work, they fired him and his injury was bad enough that he needed surgery.

From this point on, a mere four months after we were married, Corey and I have been constantly putting more than half of our income towards medical bills.  Some of you may be thinking, “That was an expensive surgery.”  Yes it was and Corey’s medical problems didn’t end there.

About a year and a half after we were married, Corey started having horrible migraines.  However, these migraines were more than migraines.  They wouldn’t just incapacitate him for hours.  They would incapacitate him for days and even weeks.

He had test after test done to find out the cause of his headaches.  No underlying cause has ever been found.  This went on for nearly eight years.  Fortunately, during this time, we had insurance.  It did cut our costs, but not as much as you think it would’ve.

Just as his headaches were starting to go away, Corey started to have pains in his abdomen.  The pain was later attributed to a faulty gall bladder.  However, even once his gall bladder was removed, he still had problems.  The doctors kept running test after test until he was diagnosed with polycythemia, a disorder in which his body produces too many red blood cells, usually associated with leukemia or lymphoma.  A few months later, he was diagnosed with colitis.  However, because of the polycythemia, they can’t control his colitis in the typical manner.  And finally, last year, they found a tumor in his femur.

Since the tumor was removed last December, Corey has been doing much better.  He still deals with the pain from the surgery and having a good chunk of his femur removed, the polycythemia, colitis, and he always has a constant low-level headache.  But, for the most part, he’s doing really well.  Unfortunately, our finances are still suffering from all the medical trauma.

We have insurance.  We’ve had insurance since his headaches started.  It’s through my work.  I quit going to school so I could be the main breadwinner because Corey couldn’t work.  It was too hard on him physically.  A regular eight-to-five job is still too hard on him physically.  However, even with the insurance, we’ve still paid more than half of our income to medical bills.  We still have medical bills we’re trying to pay.

You can’t always plan ahead for medical problems.  And, even if you can pay for the smaller illnesses, no one can afford to pay for cancer treatment.  It’s too expensive, except for the über rich, like Bill Gates or Donald Trump.  Heck, they may not even be able to afford all the treatment.

Do I think that health care should be affordable for all?  Yes.  Do I think our health care system, as it stands, has problems?  Yes.  Do I think President Obama’s plan is the best way to fix our health care? I don’t know.  I don’t think we should bankrupt our nation to provide health care for all, but I think we can make health care more affordable and that it can cover more than what it does right now and without all the headache from dealing with the insurance companies. President Obama’s plan may not be the solution, but at least he’s thinking along the right lines in the sense that no one should die or go broke because they can’t afford the care they need.