Thursday, June 28, 2012

Yay!

I don't particularly want to get political on this blog, but today I just have to for a minute. The flood of relief I felt at seeing that the Supreme Court has upheld the health care reform was extraordinary.

You see, I have lupus. This isn't something I've talked about on here yet because, thankfully (miraculously), my pregnancy thus far hasn't been affected by my condition. But it's an everyday fact of my life as I creak my joints out of bed in the morning, take medication to keep fluid from building around my heart and lungs, and head to doctor's appointments galore. I was a high-risk pregnancy before I even found out I had twins. When I first got diagnosed when I was fourteen, I figured I'd have to adopt because of my illness. I would have been totally fine with adoption, although I would have been angry that my illness took away the experience of pregnancy from me. Great strides have been made, and women with lupus are no longer discouraged from having kids, and here I am today.

In any event, every time I've switched jobs I've had to get certification of prior insurance because of my illness. I've had to argue to have them cover me and and my medications. And I've been terrified that if I ever ended up unemployed, I'd wind up spending all my money on Cobra just so my health insurance didn't lapse so I could get it again with my next employer. Luckily that fear abated somewhat when I got married, because I can always go on Blue's insurance, but it's still a fear I should never have had to have. And thanks to the health care law, no one will have to feel that fear again.

I don't like that I am a burden on the health care system. I don't like that other, healthy people pay premiums that end up covering my care. But hey, I don't like that I've got lupus, either. But it wasn't my choice, and I shouldn't have to go broke just to be able to live my life. We should take care of each other, and I'm so glad the Supreme Court agreed.

I know there are a lot of other aspects of the law that I am less familiar with, and that there are people who disagree with it. I just wanted to share my relief and joy at hearing the decision today.

CNN had a major faux-pas, by the way. Today's Dewey-Truman moment:

Whoops. Someone's getting fired.

1 comment:

  1. I was thrilled for my American friends when I heard of this wonderful news. As a Canadian who has faced a number of fertility issues, I have been extremely grateful for our Medicare system. I've been able to have a necessary surgery and several procedures without having to sign away my first born. ;-) It is a wonderful and compassionate system.
    --Summer from BBC

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