Health Care Letter to Congress Women Matsui - Draft #2

"Draft #2. Feel free to point out mistakes and make comments"

Dear Rep. Matsui,

As a public health official and a woman who lives with a chronic condition, I beg you to support and fight for health care reform that includes a public option.

Thirteen years ago, at the age of 19, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. The misery and frustration that both the illness and treatment gave me as a freshman at college - the first time on my own, making my own decisions, and dating my first boyfriend - can not be described. Suffice it to say, I survived. My Crohn’s went into remission for eleven years and only recently has decided to remind me I can never be cured.

I have been lucky.

I have been lucky not just because I was in remission for so long and my current symptoms are controllable but also because I had great care and great health insurance. My parent’s insurance covered me as undergraduate, and I got the tests, procedures, and treatment I needed. There was never a fear my parents or I would go into debt paying my medical bills.

I have been lucky because Congress passed COBRA, letting me continue my parents coverage after graduation, even with a pre-existing condition. Despite the cost of the insurance, almost $300 a month for a 27 year old, I was able to go to graduate school and earn my Master of Public Health. Without that coverage, I would not have been able to return to school. The health insurance provided by the University would not have covered my care had I needed it, nor could I go a day without insurance.

I have been lucky because I found a job with a big institution, the University of California at San Francisco, which provides me with the insurance I need. Despite my efforts at living healthy by eating well and exercising, running full and half marathons and completing triathlons, I still need infusions of immunosuppressants every six weeks.

While I have been fortunate, there are many more that haven’t been. A condition like mine can ruin a family. I’ve had 4 colonoscopies so far, costing 2-3 thousand dollars a piece. My infusions are about a thousand dollars a piece. The cost of all my other medications, doctors visits, procedures, and tests are incalculable and I haven’t had a hospital stay or needed surgery (yet). I can’t imagine what a family without good insurance would go through in a case like this and I shouldn’t have to. All people deserve the right to good care.

Despite my breaks in life, I have been bound and handcuffed by my condition. Once I finished school, I could not volunteer for a year or take a job with a non-profit organization. Any dream I’ve had of opening my own business is gone. With the cost of individual insurance increasing every year, I can not afford to to the risk of not being able to pay for coverage and/or going without.

Even the thought of earning my PhD makes me wince. As much as I would like to go back to school, can I afford tuition, rent, books, plus hundreds of dollars a month for insurance? I’m trying to find ways to make it work, but sadly, I’m not sure it’s possible.

My disease has limited my options. I choose the safe and easy paths because I know I will get the care I need, while I wish I could choose more circuitous and less traveled routes. Just imagine the benefit to the economy if our fellow citizens and I could quit our jobs and try our hands opening a business or working for small local companies without the fear of losing everything because of one accident or diagnosis. What a relief and freedom a cheap public insurance option would be.

The free market has not worked for health care. As the cost of care goes up, providers try to cut their expenses and increase their profit by limiting who and what is covered. They find ways to stop covering those who cost them the most and deny others care. We have set up a system where people make money by refusing care.

Government interference in health insurance is nothing new nor bad. As a matter of fact, people on Medicare tend to be happier with their care than those on private insurance. I have care because an employer can not discriminate against me and my pre-existing condition if they want the tax advantages of providing insurance. I have a Masters degree because of COBRA. I am grateful for government interference and, if most people realize how health insurance worked, they would be as well. Most people who do have coverage couldn’t get or afford care if not for government regulations.

I could inundate you with numbers and statistics about health care - believe me, I have them but I am sure you do too. Please look at them. Please look at what the people want and not what the media portrays or few angry people shout. Pass a health insurance bill for the sake of all Americans.