Take care of yourself and your own: leave the Constitution intact

I swear by my life and my love for it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for  mine. Ayn Rand/Atlas Shrugged

rant/I am so tired of hearing sad health care stories, that include human props. Everyone has a story or knows someone who has one. Does that mean that my sad tale should effect the entire nation? Should I make everyone else responsible for whatever happens to me? Why should anyone else pay for me?

I have BlueCross/BlueShield. I like my policy. I pay for it privately because I want a better policy than my employer offers. I’ve written about this before. There was a 6 month stretch when I didn’t have insurance, because I was too lazy to fill out the forms and send them in. It was 2006 and I had seen a doctor once in 2003 and once in 1994. I was simply never sick and thought I had plenty of time to get my coverage taken care of.

This was my fault and I am responsible for it.

When I was approved, it turned out to be the very day I went in to surgery for a tumor biopsy. BC/BS didn’t know that. They had no idea that I had been diagnosed with a brain tumor 3 days before. But because of my laziness, it was considered a pre-existing condition and they covered nothing that first year.

My neurosurgeon knew that I had no insurance. He knew how to get around that so that I could have the surgery. He trusted that I would pay him every dime I owed him too, although it might take me years to do so. He cost me $8000 but he got paid.

In fact, that first year cost us over $70,000. I lost track but I know that in the first year, I had one CT scan and at least 7 MRIs. I had to pay cash up front for every MRI. I  had a $17,000 helicopter ride and a $700 ambulance bill. It took over 2 years to pay all these bills.

Who but me should be responsible for all this? Why should anyone else have to foot this bill? Learn a lesson from me and see what laziness costs.

Yes, health care is expensive in America. Yes, there are many who are not as fortunate as I am. But I made choices in my life that helped prepare me for, at the time, this kind of life altering event. I went to college and I have a profession. I married a man who was ambitious and had the foresight to prepare us financially for this kind of situation.

Yes, I feel badly for those who are less fortunate than I am. But should I expect the entire nation to sacrifice their inalienable rights for me? How did we survive before FDR? We took care of ourselves and our own families. What a concept. In addition, we had and still have charitable organizations who assist those in dire need.

I am sick and tired of these politicians trotting out children and women who have hard luck stories that are supposed to tug at our heartstrings and make us want to give up all our liberties to save them. This kind of spectacle does nothing but cause resentment. I expect NO ONE to do that for me and I am not going to do it for anyone else.

No one should be expected to give up their constitutional rights under any circumstances, for any one. And no one should be coerced to do so by slimball politicians carting out human props in front of the camera. /end of rant