I once worked at a great small business. One day, one of my coworkers abruptly announced she was leaving the company. This woman was one of the original employees and knew the company as well (or better) than the founders. How could she possibly be leaving? I had to find out her reason, so I stepped outside with her.
“What’s the scoop?” I asked.
“It’s nothing against the company,” she said. “It’s just that our healthcare coverage has run out.”
She went on to explain that her husband had a life-threatening, incurable disease and their mounting medical bills had reached the limit of coverage that our small company’s insurance plan would cover. She either had to find a new job or her husband would surely die.
Now, I’ve changed jobs for a number of reasons, but I’ve never been driven out of a job because the life of someone I love depended on it.
My friend’s dilemma was heartbreaking. Simply heartbreaking. She loved her job and didn’t want to leave, but she had no choice: it was her job or her husband. I found it sad that you could be doing everything right – work hard at a good job and have health insurance – and you could still be screwed out of your medical coverage. But that’s the way it is here in America.
We can do far better than this. We spend mountains of money on ways to blow people apart and we can’t spend money putting people back together? What kind of whacked-out priorities are these?
I don’t know if the health care plan that’s now being debated is the best solution, but something needs to be done to fix this mess we call American healthcare.