Blog Action Day: One Stumble Away from the Abyss

In 2000, a college student experienced recurrent jaw pain. Although she had student health insurance, it did not include dental coverage. Neither her parents’ employer nor her employer (a restaurant where she waitressed part-time) offered dental benefits.

After some weeks, she visited a dentist and paid cash for an exam and two x-rays. The news wasn’t good: all four of her wisdom teeth were impacted and would have to be surgically removed. Ballpark cost? About $1200.

The student started calling some local social service agencies. She was informed that she made too much to qualify for any government assistance. She had scholarships to attend college, you see, and those scholarships counted as income.

Quite a number of phone calls, waiting around, calling again, and submitting some paperwork later, she was able to schedule an appointment at a teaching hospital not too far from campus where she paid $125 to have the surgery.

All along the way that student – me, as you’ve probably guessed – was fortunate. I was fortunate to have access to a telephone, to know to call social service agencies and teaching hospitals, to speak enough English and make myself understood, to live in a city with public transportation so I could get to appointments, to have a roommate who agreed to pick me up after surgery, and to have a part-time job with enough flexibility so I could take off for one of the three days per month that the dental clinic accepted those without insurance, to have $125 to pay for surgery.

Some aren’t so lucky. Deamonte Driver died for want of a simple extraction. And that’s a big reason I’m voting for Obama.

There is a terribly prevalent idea in America that if you’re poor and work hard enough, you’ll make it. That if only you are dedicated enough, you’ll be able to find the dental clinic, or low-cost childcare, or the money for a deposit on an apartment, or a job.

And that, ladies and gents, is utter and total bullshit. Many poor and working poor are one stumble -- one unpaid day of work, one car repair, one sick kid -- away from falling down the socioeconomic ladder.

Being poor means having to work harder. It means living in neighborhood without a grocery store. It means getting out of bed at 5AM so you can catch a bus to take your kids to the one daycare that accepts vouchers, then catching another bus, then transferring all so you can get to a job that pays $8 an hour so you don’t lose your eligibility for TANF. It means having to call and call and call to find a doctor or dentist that accepts the crap reimbursement rates from Medicaid. It means having to justify your existence twice a year so your kid can receive S-CHIP.

I think it is evil – and I don’t use that word lightly – for politicians to expect people are poor solely because of personal failings.

We need a president who sponsored the Global Poverty Act. One who helped author his state’s EITC law. One who actually recognizes poverty as an issue (Hey McCain, can’t you even pay a little lip service to the issue on your website?).

What we don’t need is one who voted against S-CHIP -- health insurance for poor kids with  working parents, parents who pay coinsurance! -- and against minimum wage.

Comments

[cynematic]

Melissa, a funny coincidence that two minutes apart we both write about dental care as part of health care that's often missing from insurance coverage.

Great post--I'm glad we published in close proximity.

[lildb]

god. it's true. heartbreaking and true.

and Melissa? this is a moving post. your combination of policy and Senate votes with your personal travails as a broke student w health care needs is -- powerful. so powerful.

thank you.

[Sharon]

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Sharon

http://www.autoloans101.info