Why I think we need National Healthcare

  I hear a lot of people speaking out against National Healthcare here and I wonder why. The only reason I can come up with is because they are already insured. There are millions in the USA who have NO options for health care at all other than their local emergency room, which should not be used for that reason. Take me for instance, I have no health insurance and can not get coverage from an employer. First of all, I do not have an employer, husband does but I also have pre-existing conditions (COPD) which makes me a bad risk for insurers. So that option is out. What about medicaid? Well that might be an option if I lived anywhere except in Tennessee. In Tennessee, they no longer have traditional medicaid, they have TennCare. In order to qualify for TennCare, you have to be either under 21, over 65 or have children under 18 (you also have to be a single parent with kids under 18) and none of those criteria fit me. I have several ongoing medical issues that really require monitoring by a doctor but have no way to go to a doctor regularly because I have to pay $150 up front per visit. Now, I don't know about you, but I just don't have that kind of money available to me. In the area I live in, you can't even go to the local health department because they only see people for 'women's problems'. So what are my options? At the moment, I can't see any. I had a doctor sign me up for a regional program that is supposed to help you get specialist care. They would not help me because I had seen another specialist before for the same problem and he doesn't participate in their program. I told them I would happily see another doctor but they refused to allow me to switch doctors. Now because of that, I cannot go to a specialist for a somewhat serious problem that requires specialist care. See, I have a hiatal hernia that prevents me from eating almost everything. I have been to the emergency room 3 times in the last 2 months because I was throwing up everything I was eating. I have lost over 20 pounds in this period and the emergency room doctors told me I really needed to get it surgically repaired since it is causing such problems. Since then, I have tried every option I can think of to try to get specialist care to no avail. I have written emails to my state governor and everything, which he never replied to, by the way. People like me have no option for ongoing healthcare. I ignore potentially fatal issues because I have no option other than an emergency room and I don't choose to go there if I can at all avoid it because I feel they should be there for true emergencies. I know I am not the only person who goes through this. National Healthcare would give people like me a way to enjoy a healthy life. And for those of you who think it couldn't happen to you, I thought that too. You never know when circumstances beyond your control will conspire to put you in the same boat I am in. This is why I think we NEED National Healthcare.