The Savage Arithmetic of the Pre-Existing Condition

Five years ago, my wife and I took what turned out to be the longest
walk in the world to Brigham & Women’s hospital in Boston to get a
diagnosis for her that had been six months in the making. She was 25
years old, and her right arm had gone sideways on her over the last nine
months with a collection of symptoms – numbness, tingling, and tremors
of such severity that her good hand was all but useless for anything
besides waving at friends – that we had run out of explanations for.
Nerve damage? Carpal tunnel? We didn’t know. She had gotten an MRI two
days earlier, and the doctor had called that day asking us to come down
and talk about it. The conversation began with, “You have multiple
sclerosis,” and that has been our undeniable reality ever since.

Multiple sclerosis, for those not in the know, is a disease in which
the body’s own immune system goes to war against its own brain. My wife
suffered her symptoms because the disease gnawed through the myelin
sheaths of her own higher nervous system and annihilated the nerves that
control her right arm. Over the intervening years, her brain has taken
it upon itself to figure out some good work-arounds – to wit, when the
road collapses, you build an overpass – but her hand will never again
have the same functionality (until stem cell research bears fruit,
fingers crossed).

I give her an injection every day to control the disease, and she
takes a variety of other drugs to manage the symptoms. All told,
multiple sclerosis – between the doctor visits, the MRIs, and the drugs
required to keep a lid on things – costs upwards of $50,000 a year.
Thankfully, she is gainfully employed with a major retail company with a
stellar insurance program, so a large portion of that cost is defrayed
by the insurance she pays for with every paycheck.

Without that insurance, she would be at the mercy of those who think
pre-existing conditions are basically God’s funny joke on people, i.e.,
ha ha ha, you’re screwed.

She is not alone. I went to the doctor last month, and found out that
I have pretty damned high blood pressure. The doctor had me come back
four weeks later to do another check, and, yup, really really high blood
pressure. I am now on two different drugs to bring it down to a
manageable level, drugs that I am going to be on until they wind me in
my shroud. I am on my wife’s insurance, so again, the cost of those
drugs is manageable, but mine is now a house filled with pre-existing
conditions.

What if she gets fired, or the company goes belly-up? She is
incredibly good at what she does, which means some other company may try
someday to tempt her away…until they hear about her pre-existing
condition, and mine, and how much insurance coverage for those
conditions will cost thanks to our truly insane for-profit health
industry. If my wife leaves her company for any reason – especially
if/when Scalia and his merry band of ridiculous fascists decide to
curb-stomp Obama’s health care law – we are both well and truly screwed.
It’s like Ayn Rand herself was allowed to draft the rules for getting
sick in America.

But that’s me and my wife.

Here’s you.

According to the American Heart Association, more than 81,000,000
people in America suffer from one or more forms of cardiovascular
disease.

According to the American Cancer Society, more than 11,000,000 people in America currently suffer from some form of cancer.

According to the American Diabetes Association, 23.6 million people
in America currently suffer from diabetes, and the Center for Disease
Control has estimated as many as half of all Americans will suffer from
the disease by the year 2050, thanks to our deplorable dietary habits.

According to the National Parkinson’s Foundation, between 50,000 and
60,000 new cases of Parkinson’s are diagnosed in America each year.

According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, some 400,000 Americans currently suffer from MS.

That’s a pretty substantial portion of the population, with more
being diagnosed with cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes,
Parkinson’s and MS every day.

Do the math.

It’s you, too.

Hundreds of millions of people in this country are sick at this
moment, or will be sick tomorrow, the next day, or somewhere down the
line. The numbers are spinning like the fare meter on a New York City
taxi cab, ever higher every day. If you’re not sick, you will be one of
these days: bank on it…and in the meantime, at least one person you know
is in that tribe.

That’s fact.

We’re enveloped in a national debate about insurance mandates and the
political leanings of nine Supreme Court Justices. That’s all well and
good, but entirely beside the point.

A nation that does not care for its sick and infirm is a nation that
does not deserve to exist. A nation that actively profits from the pain
and suffering of those sick and infirm deserves to burn in Hell. A
nation that throws those sick and infirm to the wolves is so far beneath
contempt as to beggar description.

Two years ago, Republican Mike Huckabee compared people with
pre-existing conditions to houses that have already burned down. Just
the other day on the Leno show, likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt
Romney voiced a very similar opinion.

They both have awesome health insurance.

Do you? Forever?

One of these days, you are going to have a pre-existing condition.

Hope for the best, but expect the worst. “The worst” is exactly where we are headed, if matters continue as they have.

Straightforward stuff, folks.

Think it over, while you can.

We’re on borrowed time, after all.

How are you feeling today?