"What If"

Anyone who knows me knows I am an incurable optimist. I can take any situation and find the good news in it. Anyone who knows me knows I have not had an easy life, however, with each challenge I found myself in a better place. It is not in my nature to quit. I am a fighter. When diagnosis with Breast Cancer I stayed on the up side and maintained a positive attitude. I was very blessed to have employers who provided health insurance to me as part of my benefit package. I was able to receive the necessary treatment to remove the cancerous cells from my body. I was able to receive the necessary reconstruction surgery to make my body whole again. I am now able to receive the monitoring and medication necessary to maintain my remission. I am truly blessed.

I have a new challenge. I have become unemployed due to our economic crisis. I have been unemployed before and quickly secured another position. This time is different. I am going on seven months of unemployment. I am grateful to have unemployment benefits from my employer and the unemployment benefit extensions from both the federal and state government. I also have COBRA insurance for 18 months and very grateful the federal government is subsidizing my premium by 65%.

I have been actively looking for employment and in seven months I have responded to over 150 advertisements. I have posted myself on all the major company’s websites. I have attended career transition training. I have networked. I am doing all the right things but jobs are not available. I have seven out 18 months of COBRA used up. I have 28 weeks out of 79 weeks of unemployment used up. These stats don’t seem so bad; there is plenty of time for the economy to recover. I will be O.K. Right?

Here it is; my first doubt, my first skepticism. My first” What If”. I have a pre-existing condition and without an employer’s insurance benefit I am uninsurable. Unemployment and COBRA will not last forever. So, “What If’ I am not able to secure another job before my benefits run out? How will I pay for the monitoring and medication necessary to maintain my remission?

There is a nasty debate going on regarding Heathcare Reform. There are nay sayers who don’t support any Healthcare Reform. They want to keep things just as they are. They claim under government run healthcare your grandmother will not get necessary treatment because she is too old. I wonder how this is any different from my situation? I guess either way we are both left to die.

Someone please help me understand why Healthcare Reform is such a bad thing?