Health Care Mandate Passed. I Breathe A Sigh of Relief.

I am glad the health care mandate was upheld. I, more than most my age, have been sick enough to need medical care that cost too much, and I often had to sign up for Community Care or pay out the full bill.

I've actually forgone medical care in the last few years because I simply did not have the money to go to the doctor on a regular basis. I haven't been to the dentist in at least 5 years because while I need a checkup, if my teeth aren't sore/in a bad condition, I can't afford the money to go. Same holds true for physical therapy (supposed to see someone every six months for the muscle knot in my shoulder), regular health exams (every year) and seeing a rheumatologist (same as regular health exams.) I don't have the money, I don't have insurance, I don't want to pay out for some damn exam when I could be saving to get the hell out of here. And lucky me, I have preexisting conditions that insurance probably would bump my rates up for (arthritis that could come back, fibromyalgia, and a bit of mental stuff that they'd most likely get me for.)

With this law in place, they can't do that anymore. I am equal to any other HEALTHY 26 year old in this country, and health insurance companies can't discriminate against me for something I cannot help.

There are things I believe need to be checked but I don't have the money for these things so they've been delayed. I want to have a neuropsych doctor test me for Asperger's (it's a vanity thing, but I'd like to know for sure). I want an MRI of my right shoulder and right elbow - there's clearly arthritic damage to both (narrowing of the spaces where my nerves and blood vessels run into my arm) and I want to know how much-I still can't set this elbow down on a table without being in pain after 4 years and this shoulder is getting more temperamental with every year that passes (as in every time it threatens rain!) X-rays have never shown anything but it didn't on the left wrist either, not until they did an MRI and found the microscopic etchings on my bones.) I know I have a bone spur underneath my collarbone there...what's to say there wasn't more that the X-rays couldn't pick up?

These things aren't much and they might not help me, but I would like to know for certain that I'm not slowly losing function in this arm because of scarring or whatever. I don't want to get two or three decades down the road and find out that I need surgery to save my arm. I have enough autoimmune stuff going on I don't need that as well.

I think I've said enough for today. Probably time to let the doggie out.

Ta,
Bec