Editor’s Note: My thanks to @thegoodbloggess for the tweet that inspired this post.
April 27, 1987 is a day I will always remember. Mr. Bartender and I had been married for 3 weeks (24 days to be exact). I was wearing my new white pants. We decided to have Chinese food for dinner. Well, that’s what we would have eaten if we had actually made it to the restaurant. You see, April 27 was the day of my “auto accident.”
Sad to say, the “accident” (as it’s referred to these days) wasn’t a little fender bender. I shattered my ankle, fractured my face in three places, and broke my back. I subsequently had a tracheotomy and temporarily lost all movement from the waist down. Initially, I spent three weeks in the hospital and the first nine months of my married life in a full body cast. There were lots of follow-up surgeries which I won’t go into…you get the picture.
Now, I’m not writing this for melodrama nor so anyone can feel sorry for me. I never felt sorry for myself. I AM writing this to share with you how fast your life can change. And the importance of health care. Even if you have great cholesterol, work out regularly, don’t smoke and eat healthy food…you can very quickly find yourself in a health care crisis. It also doesn’t matter how young or old you are.
Lucky for me, my employer offered free insurance coverage. Even though I was young and thought I was invincible, the company benefits person told me it was free so I signed up. It was excellent coverage. Since then, I’ve always made it a point to understand how my health insurance works.
Right now, our country is engaging in one of the most significant debates of recent history – health care reform. I’m not going to tell you which proposed plan to support. But I do want to say, let’s not make the issue of health care reform about donkeys and elephants – this is much too important. We each have an obligation to read about the issues, get educated on the proposals and, most importantly, form an opinion.
I’m sharing with you my story because the experience made me realize the importance of understanding not only insurance but health care in general. I wouldn’t want anyone to go through what I did in order to take an interest in the subject of health care reform.
Take my word for it. It’s important. Get involved.
leanneclc says
Great post. My daughter had to have a heart valve fixed this year and my Dad was a heart transplant recipient…I can identify with how fast it can change. And that you need to be educated about your health care and oversee the doctors, ask questions and be involved.
And I agree…there is lots to learn in this debate. Get educated, and make your own decision…don’t allow pundits and 24-hour news shows to do it for you…it could make all the difference in your world.
hr bartender says
Thanks for sharing Leanne. Hopefully others will learn from our experiences.
Lisa Rosendahl says
In the course of a phone call, the blink of an eye, the turm of an ankle – everything can change. Thank you for sharing your story to make the issues real and bring them right down to the personal level.
ndslotnick says
Thank you for sharing Sharlyn. Wow! Incredible story that, unfortunately, many can relate to. Probably the saddest thing about the current debate is that with 1000 pages of legislation, most of those talking about it (including many of the legislators) haven’t actually read it, but will rip each other apart about what it does or doesn’t say. Personnally, I am an favor of easier to read legislation. I would find it much easier to support small bills that address the major problems of the current system individually, while using straight-forward legislation that the layperson can actually understand. (I would support this for ALL legislation, not just health care). Oh, and while their at it, government agencies and regulations should all use straightforward language. Okay, I am starting to drift off-topic, sort of, but I have a developmentally disabled young adult transitioning into adult/work life and have spent much of my summer trying to navigate the regulations of the Social Security SSI program, DSHS Div. of Vocational Rehabilitation, DSHS Div. of Developmental Disabilities, and of course DSHS Medicaid/Medical Coupon Program. I will get off of my soapbox now 🙂
hr bartender says
I totally agree – there’s more work that needs to be done. Hopefully, health care reform is just the start of revamping an entire system.
Mike Schunk says
I’m in favor of Healthcare Reform. – But this is socialization. There were changes that needed to be made, but overall this is a very bad bill. It will NOT reduce costs. Those of you hanging your hat onto the CBO report for healthcare reform might want to know that Social Security will pay out more than it takes in this year – was not suppose to happen until 2016. Unfortunately, there were several very good suggestion ignored by the administration.
FYI – I’m a Certified Employee Benefit Specialist and very informed on the bill. I also am connected to othe CEBS via a linkedin email exchange. – It’s been very interesting to hear this debated throughout from both sides.
hr bartender says
Thanks for commenting Mike. I’m sure we will be hearing more about health care and the effects of this legislation in the months to come. Only time will tell how successful or unsuccessful this reform was for people.