Dear People Who Control Stuff,
I am writing today to tell you about the problems the current healthcare system and regulations in this country cause for me and how they prevent me from getting the medications and care that I need while also, in combination with other broken American systems, keep me from living a comfortable life.
First however, please allow me to introduce myself and tell you a bit about who I am.
My name is Sadie, I'm thirty, and I grew up in South Dakota until I was 14 at which time we moved to Northern Minnesota where I attended high school. From there I moved to the city to attend the University of Minnesota where I recently attained my Bachelor of Arts degree.
I have been working outside of home since I was 13 years old, and have watched my parents work as hard as physically and mentally possible their entire lives.
Currently, I work full time caring for adults with developmental disabilities, and for supplemental income refurbish old furniture and make art which I sell in local stores. I live in an apartment in South Minneapolis with my little dog, Shirley, and the several mice and myriad centipedes. My apartment has almost no heating in the living room in the winter and the temperature never exceeds fifty degrees when it's cold out. I've been assured, time and time again, that this can not be helped and that,"the boiler is at maximum capacity."
At least twice a year, my bathroom and hallway flood with dirty toilet water, which I have also been told is inevitable since,"the pipes are old."
Last November, the maintenance men came in to fix a leak in my toilet and realized that there was a pipe somewhere in the wall between the kitchen and bathroom that was leaking as well. My kitchen floor flooded, and they cut four separate, square foot holes in my wall to find the leak which they then patched. Then they left, telling me that they would be back in a few weeks to make a permanent fix to the pipe, and to repair the walls. As I mentioned, this was November of 2014, and they have not been back. I've called numerous times and gotten no response or been told that someone will come, and no one does. These are only a few of the things I put up with where I live, but I don't move because I can't afford to pay rent any higher than what I already pay, nor can I afford the deposits and etc that a new place would require.
Three years ago, I shared a home with three friends in Minneapolis, which was a wonderful place to live. We were a family, shared most things, and supported one another however possible. One night in March our house caught fire as we all slept. One of my roommates woke up and began to yell out to the rest of us to wake up and get out of the house. Two of my other roommates woke and got out of a window, thinking that Adam (the one who woke them) was right behind, which he was not. They were all on the second floor, while I was on the third, and did not wake up to Adam's yelling. I was pulled, unconscious, from the house by firemen and was pronounced dead. The two of my roommates who climbed out the window were told that Adam and I were gone.
Somehow, it was discovered that I was still alive, and was rushed to HCMC where I was in a coma for three weeks and in the Intensive Care/Burn Unit for a month. My parents were told not to have hope that I would survive, and if I did, not to expect me to be the same since my brain had been deprived of oxygen for so long. I had carbon monoxide poisoning, cyanide poisoning, my lungs were burned, my esophagus was burned, I had several small to medium sized burns on every part of my body, and since I was in a bed and immobile for so long, my muscles atrophied and I had to learn to walk again.
Once I had been released from the hospital, I stayed with my parents for a time, recovering and suffering from severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I have had asthma all my life, but needless to say, after the fire my lungs were much worse, breathing was more difficult (as it still is) and the PTSD had me squeezing my hands into fists while I slept which caused me to develop carpal tunnel in both wrists. I also developed sleep apnea, due to my lung injuries and now require a CPAP machine to sleep.
Luckily I had MN Care when the fire happened, and my almost half a million dollar bill was covered in its entirety. However, once I began working again and then graduated from school, I no longer qualified for MN Care or Medical Assistance. Although I work full time, it is a combination of two part time jobs and I am not offered health insurance through either. I love my jobs and have asked my employers if there is some way I can be provided insurance through them since more often than not I pick up enough extra shifts at both companies to be full time at each individually. They have, of course, both explained that they can not afford to provide health insurance to all of their employees; the costs are simply too high. Friends have told me about similar situations in their jobs, where they are given just enough hours of work so that they are an hour or even half an hour short of full time and the corporation doesn't have to offer them health insurance. Even when companies do offer insurance, it often covers next to nothing and/or the deductible is so high that people are unable to reach it by the end of the year.
Because I no longer meet the standards for government medical assistance due to my income (literally seventy percent of which goes to my crippling student debt-- over $1,000 a month), I chose not to pay for insurance and was paying for my medications out of pocket while utilizing coupons, online discount codes, and taking advantage of every assistance program I qualified for through individual clinics and hospitals. Last year however, I was informed that the government now requires everyone to have health insurance, so was forced to choose a plan via MN Sure. Each of the plans I "qualified" for either had an extremely high deductible or an extremely high monthly premium. I chose what I thought was the lesser of the two evils; my plan has a $4,500 deductible. My monthly income is about $2,500, and I pay rent and car insurance on my own as well as several other necessary bills.
Today I went in to pick-up one of my inhalers for the first time since I started this plan, and the inhaler was over fifty dollars. I was told this was because I am only about $2,900 into my deductible. I simply can not afford that. This is only one of several medications I need to function, and is by no means the most expensive. Another inhaler I need, Advair, is over $300 monthly.
For the CPAP machine, I was paying $250 a month to rent it for ten months (per my insurance). I found out when I called the clinic where I got the CPAP, that were I to keep paying the $250 monthly, by the time insurance would cover it (ten months later), I would own the machine and they wouldn't have to pay anything. Luckily, I made contact with a very kind nurse in the clinic and she found a donated machine for me so I am able to have a CPAP and not pay the unaffordable monthly "rent." Had I not found her, I would be without a necessary treatment only because I do not have the money for it.
I should also see a wrist specialist for the carpal tunnel that has been getting progressively worse over the years as well, but there is no way I can afford that either, or the treatment I will certainly need after I am seen.
Basically, I am paying, and have been paying, over $250 a month for medical and dental insurance that does, quite literally, nothing for me. On the off chance that there's another fire or I am in a car accident or have a brain aneurysm or something, then it might actually help me. Which is quite a disgusting thing, having to almost hope for some kind of medical catastrophe so that my deductible is met and the insurance I pay so much for will actually start providing coverage for the care and medications I need.
I feel as though I am being robbed. I pay for the insurance, and then I pay for the medications, and the doctor appointments, and I just keep paying and paying yet get none of what I need. And the government is forcing me to allow myself to be robbed.
I could continue to describe the other broken systems in this country, such as student loan debt and how it prevents so many graduates from ever being able to live comfortably or have decent credit scores, but I won't. Instead, I will implore you to please do what you can to change health care legislation. The health care system in this country is so deeply flawed that the corporations which provide the medication and care people need are the same organizations which inflate their prices so incredibly that those who need what they provide, can't afford it. Privatization of health care is obviously something that only benefits those who own the pharmaceutical and health care companies. Please fight for those of us who don't have the millions of dollars required to have a voice. We are just as worthy of affordable medical care as any millionaire.
Thank you so much for your time.
Sincerely,
Sadie Norlin
