Bbucko
Cherished Member
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2006
- Posts
- 7,232
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- Location
- Sunny SoFla
- Sexuality
- 90% Gay, 10% Straight
- Gender
- Male
As someone who has been driven to bankruptcy and near-destitution by the loss of his private health insurance, I am cautiously optimistic that we'll have some form of universal access to insurance in the not-too distant future.
Anyone who has found himself diagnosed with a condition that precludes any hope of private insurance and who has been forced into indigence in order to qualify for means-tested care (tests, treatment and medications), I have a stake in how this plays out.
The draconian eligibility criteria for obtaining the services required to continue living forced me into a cruel and unnecessary choice: I was unable to afford both my car and my rent. As sleeping in my car was not an option, I went with the latter, which limited my job options. Those options that remained to me were such that my 30+ years career became entirely irrelevant, and I went from managing a furniture store to folding jeans in the space of weeks. And any hope of regaining my career was cut off not just because I no longer had the means to get myself to and from a better job, but because any money I'd hope to earn would have cut me off from the meds required to keep me alive.
Aside from the inevitable depression that such a situation would engender and allow to fester, the irony that my tax contribution was cut by 3/4 (or more) has never escaped me. I take subsistence jobs not because I want to (I find them an appalling waste of time and talent), but because I'm required to.
Making insurance available to me would change my life, make me more productive and boost my self-esteem (as well as being able to contribute more to society), but as of now my hands are completely tied.
And, just for the record, in 2008 I earned about 110% of the Federal Poverty Line (less than most of the members here pay in taxes altogether), and still paid taxes. My Federal taxes were about $350. Florida has no income tax, but it does have a sales tax from which I am not exempt (no complaint, just an iteration of the tax burden shouldered by everyone): where the uninformed got their information about the poor not paying taxes is beyond me. It's a cruel lie.
Were I to have access to private health insurance, I could easily find a job (even in these tough times) that would pay three to four times what I earned last year. The means-testing required by the state holds me down tremendously, but I frankly have no alternative.
What we need is a program that allows me to buy-in despite my pre-existing condition(s): a risk that purely private enterprise currently finds unduly burdensome.
Anyone who has found himself diagnosed with a condition that precludes any hope of private insurance and who has been forced into indigence in order to qualify for means-tested care (tests, treatment and medications), I have a stake in how this plays out.
The draconian eligibility criteria for obtaining the services required to continue living forced me into a cruel and unnecessary choice: I was unable to afford both my car and my rent. As sleeping in my car was not an option, I went with the latter, which limited my job options. Those options that remained to me were such that my 30+ years career became entirely irrelevant, and I went from managing a furniture store to folding jeans in the space of weeks. And any hope of regaining my career was cut off not just because I no longer had the means to get myself to and from a better job, but because any money I'd hope to earn would have cut me off from the meds required to keep me alive.
Aside from the inevitable depression that such a situation would engender and allow to fester, the irony that my tax contribution was cut by 3/4 (or more) has never escaped me. I take subsistence jobs not because I want to (I find them an appalling waste of time and talent), but because I'm required to.
Making insurance available to me would change my life, make me more productive and boost my self-esteem (as well as being able to contribute more to society), but as of now my hands are completely tied.
And, just for the record, in 2008 I earned about 110% of the Federal Poverty Line (less than most of the members here pay in taxes altogether), and still paid taxes. My Federal taxes were about $350. Florida has no income tax, but it does have a sales tax from which I am not exempt (no complaint, just an iteration of the tax burden shouldered by everyone): where the uninformed got their information about the poor not paying taxes is beyond me. It's a cruel lie.
Were I to have access to private health insurance, I could easily find a job (even in these tough times) that would pay three to four times what I earned last year. The means-testing required by the state holds me down tremendously, but I frankly have no alternative.
What we need is a program that allows me to buy-in despite my pre-existing condition(s): a risk that purely private enterprise currently finds unduly burdensome.
