I am an insurance company's worst nightmare. It is impossible to profit off of me, and I will inevitably spend more on care than I pay in, otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford it. I have lupus, major depressive disorder, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, ADHD, asthma, and allergies thrown in for good measure. My meds, doctor visits, lab work, cortisone and belimumab injections, and therapy are about $50,000 a year, with 95% of that being lupus-related treatment. (Lupus ain't cheap.) I also had scoliosis, spinal stenosis, and several compressed discs, as well as partially lupus-related dental problems, but all of that's fixed now. I'm more or less finethe worst I have to deal with are a few minor lingering mental issues and days when lupus makes my joints stiff and sore, I run a fever, and feel generally kind of shitty, but that's nothing compared to life without treatment. I haven't had a major flare in three years now, and I am able to live a normal and productive life rather than having to be bedridden and on disability. Thanks to having access to quality medical care, you can't even tell I have severe health problems. This is what made me so passionate about universal healthcare and taught me that access to basic medical care is is a human right, not a luxury.
"Socialized medicine" has never turned me down and has treated me better than for-profit insurance. Since my dad was in the army, I've received taxpayer-funded healthcare from the government for most of my life, both through Tricarethe single-payer healthcare system for members of the armed forces and their families, which even includes NHS-like government-owned and funded clinics and hospitalsand through the Canadian single-payer healthcare system (aka "Medicare") since we were stationed up there for a while. People talk about how they wish they had my insurance because I never have to worry about anything.
Here's an example: after we came home from Canada, I had a problem getting my second back surgery in the states. It was because my medical records and paperwork about my back problems were still in Canada, and I had trouble transferring them back to the states. Without my records, I'd have to go and have all the X-Rays/MRI/testing/etc again, but that wasn't Tricare's or Medicare's fault: Regardless of who my insurer was, I could not have gotten a referral to surgery without a re-diagnosis, because my new doctors had no clue what was wrong with my back or what needed to be done without my records. When I called Tricare and explained this situation to them, they offered to pay for me to have the surgery in Canada if Canadian Medicare wouldn't cover it, even though my GP, chiropractor, and a Canadian surgeon were obviously way out of my coverage region. It was much easier to go through same chiropractor I had before for the surgery referral anyway, since she already knew everything. We were already working toward surgery before my dad got an unexpected early release. It hadn't been six months since I left Canada, so I was still covered by Canadian Medicare, and they paid for my surgery and physical rehab/therapy. The only thing they didn't cover were some of my meds, and that was because my dad didn't have supplementary pharmacy insurance up there anymore. Tricare still covered them for me.
On the other hand, before I went back to college, I had healthcare through my employer for a while, so Tricare had stopped covering me. My employer's insurance covered everything for my lupus, but it had 10% coinsurance, which my parents had to pay out of pocket for because I couldn't afford it. Then I broke my nose and needed surgery to fix it. My doctor requested a referral to a plastic surgeon for me to have it done (i.e. for a nose job, albeit not for cosmetic reasonsmy nose and septum had to be straightened and some of the internal cartilage removed to fix my snoring, breathing problems, and freakishly loud nostrils). My employer's insurance rejected my doctor's request and considered this procedure not "medically necessary." When I went back to college and was on my dad's Tricare again, I had no problem getting a referral to get this fixed. The army hospital put me on one of those dreaded "waiting lists" that conservatives claim socialized medicine is infamous for. The wait was...a whole three weeks.
Yeah, That's the "horrors" of socialized medicine.
