Bolt The Door, Mercy

I wanted to follow up on a comment and post from fellow depressive Sinister Spinster in the context of what Ericka wrote yesterday.

HCR has been a big personal and political issue for our family, so we've been as engaged as possible.  Ericka attended a rally outside one of the regional forums back in March, when Sam was still an alien-looking blob, and despite being on bedrest for the last 12 weeks of her pregnancy joined in citizen lobbying of Representative Peter Welch and Senator Bernie Sanders (we've met with Pat Leahy's staff in DC for a variety of things, but the health care person was AWOL).  Together we've written countless letters and made countless phone calls on a persistent basis to our entire Delegation and President Obama, not to mention Members of Congress from other States. 

We're still trying to stay in the game, though admittedly it's a bit difficult as we've been so absorbed by our financial and medical crises, and now of course raising a newborn.  At least with electronic means we can participate in Bloggers Unite Fight For Preemies Day and other such activities even if we can't get back down to DC for a little while.

It's sometimes distressing to see that after so many sad stories like the Facebook lady's, and after so many thousands of people have worked so hard on HCR, the whole quest yet stands on the edge of a knife, but that's the way it all works.  After reading the comments Ericka posted about that poor woman's struggle, I'm more...well, depressed about our fellow citizens who are almost inexplicably invested in the unjust status quo.

I'm especially sensitive to mental health issues having friends and family who have gone through a lot.  And of course there's my own long-term clinical depression.  Because it's "all in your head" most people don't really understand, even if they think they do, how this shit works.  Thus you get ignorant comments and insurance company actions because--GASP!--a depressed person hangs out in a bar, goes to a beach, has a picture of them smiling.

Yes, people in the depths of depression sometimes crack a smile and even laugh at jokes!  We also might be inclined to try fighting our horrible, uncontrollable feelings of despair by going out to be with people or take in sunshine.  And we often self-medicate with alcohol and whatnot.

For some people depression, even with meds, can be debilitating.  I'm fortunate enough to be pretty high-functioning without pills--my work really and other things do suffer, however--and still my citalopram is a miracle (I know because I went off my meds once for a couple weeks).  I don't like to judge anybody's reaction to pain, let alone chemical imbalance, particularly when I don't have all the facts, so I'd caution everybody to not to leap into a situation they really can't appreciate and side with a corporation whose sole motive is to make a profit by denying claims, whether it's the specific incident Ericka blogged about or in general.

I'm sure there's some fraud in our system, really in any system.  That's hardly an excuse to throw compassion and trust out the window while actively working to prevent people from exercising their basic human and civil rights.

It was an interesting experience filling out forms and dealing with the bureaucracy signing up for Vermont's Green Mountain Care.  Applications were extremely short, asked us nothing about medical history, and the only thing we've been challenged on is proof of citizenship (not residency) per Federal requirements.  Quite a contrast to the hoops I've jumped through for corporate health insurance, but not surprising since the goal in this case is to err on the side of providing coverage, not denying it.

I was extremely worried when my COBRA expired and the monthly Rx jumped to 85 dollars.  That's not a lot compared to some people's pharma hit, but for an underemployed family of war tax resisting activists it was a tremendous burden.  This Thanksgiving I am grateful to live in a State that provides us with socialized medical coverage so now I can afford to keep taking the medicine that enables me to be more productive and even pursue a little happiness (I seem to recall seeing a document talking about that being a right or something).

ntodd