The Last Page
Sinsheimer, Jessica
WE MAY BE YOUNG, but we don't have the luxury of feeling invincible. When one ambulance ride, hospital visit, or even prescription could mean financial ruin, the young and uninsured have to...
...When one ambulance ride, hospital visit, or even prescription could mean financial ruin, the young and uninsured have to live carefully...
...We're not naïve enough to think nothing 112 n DISSENT / Fall 2006 will go wrong—it does, and it will...
...Forget dental checkups and eye exams: instead, we brush, floss, and squint...
...Our situation is precarious, and we know it: we're part of the minority who wait for the walk sign before crossing the street...
...In one week, my two housemates and I had cases of tonsillitis, strep throat, and pink eye—all maladies that required medical attention...
...Among my classmates who graduated from college this year, I know of only three who have jobs with health insurance—and even then, they have to pay significant employee contributions...
...We're working jobs that barely pay a living wage...
...Here, curable illnesses could very well be a death sentence for those who simply cannot afford treatment...
...Even with partial insurance, we each ended up spending several hundred dollars...
...The simple fact is that most of us do not have six thousand spare dollars, the average price of a year of coverage...
...This is one reason that every thirty seconds, an American files for bankruptcy in the wake of medical expenses...
...Some think uninsured young people just have misplaced priorities—that instead of investing in our health, we'd prefer to spend money on clothes, shoes, computers, DVDs...
...The Institute of Medicine estimates that lack of insurance kills eighteen thousand Americans every year—this is, Paul Krugman notes, the equivalent of six September I Is...
...bankruptcies are the result of medical expenses— a statistic unimaginable in a country with universal health care...
...And yet, many of us are graduates of prestigious universities...
...we cook our eggs thoroughly—not that we've known anyone with salmonella, but we don't want to risk it...
...If we can read the street signs through an old pair of glasses, that's good enough for now...
...In fact, half of all U.S...
...Only, of course, after six months of uninsured work...
...Insurance is not an option...
...WHAT OF THOSE without prestigious degrees and families who can provide assistance...
...Or is it the system that would rather neglect its young than nurture them...
...Is it the young, underemployed, and uninsured who need to readjust their priorities...
...We have good grades, excellent résumés, drive, and ambition—and we cannot find jobs that offer benefits...
...What happens when one child becomes sick and suddenly requires emergency medical attention...
...Americans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four are more likely to be uninsured than any other group in the industrialized world...
...In any other advanced industrialized country in the world, the government ensures that parents don't have to choose between health care for one child and food for the family...
...So we take our vitamins and hope for the best...
...We know that if we get sick, we'll miss work days and lose pay...
...And when it comes time for yearly checkups, you can bet that if we're still breathing, not bleeding, and without severe pain, we won't go...
...JESSICA SINSHEIMER...
...What about those who must support children, who work multiple jobs, and who still can barely get by...
...We seriously consider trading meaningful work for life as a full-time Starbucks barista—hoping to qualify for the insurance such corporations partially subsidize...
...The irony of employmentbased insurance is that, even for those who have it, getting sick for an extended period of time may mean simultaneously losing one's job, the insurance that went with it, and income to pay for medical treatment...
Vol. 53 • September 2006 • No. 4
