Lasting opinions: HRC 32/100
29 August, 2016 | Index
Dear Hillary Clinton,
Gerard Mclean here, from Englewood, Ohio, just north of Dayton. There were 100 days from your nomination to election, so I’m writing you 100 letters. This is the thirty-second letter. The others can be found in your USPS mailbox or online at 100HRC.com
A couple years ago, my daughter who was 23 at the time and still on my insurance because of the ACA, was experiencing some abdominal pain. It was a Sunday, so she went to the local urgent care, who told her to go to the emergency room. She was there less than two hours and received a less than conclusive diagnoses. (She is fine, still doesn’t know what was wrong, though. Probably stress.)
A couple weeks later, the bill arrived; $1,326.00 was my share of the bill. Since it fell under the FAMILY OOP (I had already maxed out my individual OOP) the whole thing was payable in full.
Since my daughter was helping me process and sort my bills at the time, she saw it. Normally, I would have just paid it and not shared the actual cost with her. She knew there was a cost for the emergency room, but I she didn’t need to know it cost me that much. Not yet.
Seeing the bill had the effect I feared it would — she was hesitant to seek medical care because she did not want to be a burden to me. (she has since gotten a job with benefits, so this is a non-issue… side note, Sen. Brown, she had to move to Houston, TX to get a job with benefits; there are none in Ohio for young people)
She is part of the Millennial generation who saw the Great Recession devastate their parents’ and friends’ parents’ lifetime of hard work in housing, savings and retirement. Now they are being asked to believe the economy is better, but they see the ground zero medical bills and they are not buying any of it. This is a problem for you.
Our kids are forming lasting opinions about American health care now. They are not good. We need UniversalCare, SinglePayer, MedicareForAll.
Regards,
Gerard McLean
cc: Sen. Sherrod Brown
